Memory Escape
by LucidClockwork
Summary: [Sasusaku] Black, then white, then black again. It was an endless cycle with no colour, all because he had left her. Left her at the bench and had now left her in a puddle of her own crimson blood. She wasn't dying was she? It was the end but unlike others, she couldn't accept her fate. {TIME TRAVEL AU}
1. Prologue

**Memory Escape**

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**Summary: **_[Sasusaku] Black, then white, then black again. It was an endless cycle with no colour, all because he had left her. Left her at the bench and had now left her in a puddle of her own crimson blood. She wasn't dying was she? It was the end but unlike others, she couldn't accept her fate. {TIME TRAVEL AU}_

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**Disclaimer: **_Standard disclaimers apply. The poem that Sakura hears in the afterlife is not entirely written by me. I simply took two lines from the poem 'Soon Enough' by Kahil Gibran and added a couple more lines to fit the storyline. I am not a poet so any poetry-related dialogue can be expected to belong to someone else._

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**Categories: **_Drama, Adventure, Friendship, Action, Romance_

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**A/N: **_Hi guys! Like my new style? I thought that my old layout was pretty messy so I'm going to be using this for all my stories. I'll admit, I've been writing the first chapter… Maybe fifty words a month? I've tried but I just couldn't find any motivation to write and everything came out horribly. Yeah I said I would update five or six months ago LOL. Sorry but here is the long awaited re-rewritten first chapter of Memory Escape ^_^_

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**LucidClockwork**

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**Chapter 1**

**Splitting Fate**

* * *

It was inevitable. Of course she knew that, this day was coming and she wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it.

Yet now... Now that it was actually happening…

She didn't believe it was.

"Kakashi-sensei," Her lips were pressed in a thin line, her expression grim with dread, "Your lying, aren't you?"

Her old sensei, now her fellow jounin, crinkled his eyes but did not reply. After knowing the grey-haired man for so long, she could read his body language like a book. The simple crinkling of his eyes informed her of the worst.

"No," She breathed, her lips were dry from the dust of the dead land, the battlefield of the fourth shinobi war, "This can't be-,"

Grabbing onto his vest, she hauled him off the ground and held his body inches off the ground, "TELL ME YOU'RE LYING!" She screamed, her tone filled with her hysterical emotions.

Kakashi lowered his head, "I'm not,"

Then his feet were back firmly on the cold, dead dirt, his pink-haired student crouched in front of him. Once vibrant eyes of bright emerald, now hardened with months of war and missions of the common shinobi expressed the numb emptiness she felt.

"I'm sorry Sakura," Kakashi simply placed a single hand up top her head, a gesture he was sure the kunoichi recognised, "I'm truly sorry," His voice choked, betraying the stoic he had lived by his entire life.

"It isn't your fault Kakashi-sensei, no one blames you for what happened with Obito," He blinked as she gently took his hand and held it between her own, her eyes surprisingly glowing in determination, "It isn't your fault that Naruto and Sasuke went down the same path,"

Onyx orbs widening, the older man carefully studied her. No tears, only a game-face. Only then did Kakashi realised how different the female quarter of Team 7 was from her innocent days of little violence, a privileged life and her obsessive crush on his Uchiha student.

"Take me to them,"

"Sakura, you…"

"I won't ask again, Kakashi-sensei," Her tone was full of authority, "I… I've never been able to do anything and this… This is the last time I'll be able to thank them both,"

This was how life had been for the longest time, dark and uncertain. Kakashi swallowed his words, only staring at Sakura with scarce emotion. With one small smile, her last smile, the warmth of her hands embracing his vanished. Only then did the man drop to his knees and let out a loud wail of despair for his students, his repeated mistakes, his father and the tragic fate that had befallen once again.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It was a flurry of unceasing attacks. A rassengan woven from chakra would deflect a mass ball of lightning and thunder. There was barely enough time to wipe the sweat off one's brow as another wave of attacks invaded.

Appearing in a quick flash of white light, Sakura collapsed, watching through blades of dead grass on a mild hill just adjacent to the horrifying show of power and strength. The power and strength of _her_ boys.

"No…" It was the only thing she was able to conjure in her usual fast churning mind.

Unable to watch her boys spar with the intent of death yet unable to lift her eyes, helplessness washed over her nerves, a cold shiver running down her spine, through her fingers and down her legs to her toes. Naruto swung his arm with precision, knocking Sasuke's enclosed fist to the side all while swinging his left leg in a roundhouse kick movement, in which the latter was able to avoid with a smooth jump.

It was a match of taijutsu, focused punches and strategic planning. Naruto let out a roar of pain and steam arose from Sasuke's fingertips, cracking with electricity. The man smiled sadistically, licking his lips as the charge grew ever more visible from the distance Sakura was viewing the dispute.

The distance grew widely, both men flaring their chakra at their feet and defensively dashing away. The battlefield was silent for a single moment before the air grew stale and oxygen was seemingly sucked from her lungs, Sakura's hair stood on end as the sound of crackling electricity grew ever louder.

Naruto was engulfed with red chakra, eyes wide and slitted with malice and rage. Sakura had seen Naruto in this state before, however, the tails that the aura around created was not growing larger in numbers. _No_, there was already a complete set of nine, the red aura growing darker and more evident.

Sasuke was not doing much better either. The curse mark flared with chakra and his body twisted into one of a demon, only growing more and more menacing. His skin, his clear, pale skin darkened to an ash grey and grew rough like the hide of an animal. His hair grew drastically, no longer the soothing, soft jet black hair she had once fallen for. His hair was jagged and rough, Sasuke had become a beast.

Then, there was a shrill whip of the wind and the two men lunged at each other. Everything slowed down as bright blue ball of chakra formed in Naruto's hands, a sparking ball of electricity in Sasuke's.

They both cried each other's names, in this final battle, there no longer be the complete team of three both Naruto and Sakura desperately craved again.

There would no longer be a team of three.

There would no longer be a useless kunoichi.

The blood that exploded and splattered against skin, dirt, grass and hair wasn't that of a killer nor a hero. The blood was that of one useless kunoichi.

A rassengan through her stomach and a chidori through her heart, Sakura almost laughed ironically. What heart? Sakura inquired, hers had already been taken long before.

"You know," Sakura gasped, blood dripping from the corner of her lips onto the hand of the one man she was facing, Sasuke, "You guys are so immature, you don't hate each other that much,"

Naruto was the first to come back from his stunned surprise, pulling his hand out of Sakura's stomach and looking to himself in horror. Sakura groaned with pain, supporting herself on her former teammate's arm.

"S-SAKURA!" Naruto cried with panic, his voice shrill with fear.

Sasuke pulled his hand out too, coated in a sticky red liquid.

_That's my blood, _Sakura thought numbly.

The Uchiha laid her gently on the ground and towered over her, bangs shadowing his eyes. Naruto grabbed onto the girl's vest pulling and shaking her, "WHY SAKURA?!" The blonde boy shouted, sadness and anger laced in his voice, "WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BRING THAT BASTARD BACK TOGETHER! HOW ARE WE MEANT TO DO THAT NOW?"

Sakura laughed, face contorted with pain, "Never mind that Naruto," She breathed, her eyes becoming heavier with every shaky breath she took, "You don't need me anyway,"

Sasuke lifted his face and Sakura could only barely gasp in surprise, "Y-You're c-crying,"

The warm arms that fit around her waist seemed foreign, unwanted. Sakura shook her head and pushed him away, "I wanted you to c-come back to the village so much," Her voice fell below a whisper.

"M-Maybe… We were all cursed from the beginning. Sasuke...-," She broke into hacking coughs, blood spluttering from her lips, "I was fool for believing, you used us…"

"Sakura…" The Uchiha started, his expression twisted in sadness and guilt.

"No Sasuke, she's right," Naruto cut in, "We chased after you for so long, and now-" He choked back tears.

A sad smile played on her lips as she gazed dreamingly at her two boys, "We were all fools, we were doomed from the beginning," Her eyes lidded as her vision blurred two figures towering over her, her hands laced with the fingers on both Naruto and Sasuke.

"I wish that we had another chance,"

As the darkness washed over her, the pain numbed into a new sensation. She felt empty, yet free. Floating above an empty chasm of blackness.

"_Who among you does not feel that his power to love is endless?"_

A voice rung with harmony, pleasure and peace. The question was puzzling, Sakura supposed Sasuke had an inability to love.

"_And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?"_

The voice continued.

"_Forget the lies and the tears,_

_Relive the fun and laughter,"_

A tickling sensation washed over her body, light speckling in small balls and vanishing.

"_One who wishes to turn back time, life surreal flowing as a dream"_

The pleasant feeling died away as the darkness faded into colour and light.

"_Turn back! O Hands of cruel years,"_

Sakura whimpered as her mind was quickly overpowered with images, sounds and different sensations prickling her fingers and skin.

The first time she'd made a friend in Ino Yamanaka. Sakura grasped at the memory, watching as the memory slipped between her fingertips and the two young girls withered away in a speculate of white light.

When she'd fallen in love with Sasuke Uchiha and his charming innocent smiles, she cried indignantly and tearfully as the memory faded too.

Uzumaki Naruto, her one true friend whom been subjected to years of her baseless prejudices for abuse and yet, had still stuck by her side until the very end. The warm smiling face of her beloved friend twisted into a sadistic grin, waving and wisping away into nothing as she fell deeper into the endless darkness.

Darkness, more darkness. Could anything get darker?

The thick blackness lifted, her feelings of freedom, emptiness pulling her deeper until there was light.

Light from her bedroom window, her curtains wavering from the summer breeze. Rousing, Sakura lifted herself off the comfortable bed, her skin forming goose bumps from the chilling wind flowing into her room. She raised her hand to shut the window, gasping as a small, frail hand graced her vision. Her village, Konoha…

It was as if it had never been destroyed.

Sakura felt her vision blur and her body collapse. Her mind fizzled into unconsciousness.

* * *

**A/N: **_How long has it been? It's September, I last updated any of my stories in February. Wow… That's seven months… I'm terribly sorry for any inconvenience and I have nothing to blame but my own laziness to write. Last year, it was easy to update because my mind was fresh with new ideas. It's getting a little harder to think now that there's so much going on in my life compared to last year._

_I'm rewriting most of the chapters that I find most... unsatisfactory. I most likely won't post a new chapter until I've finished my revision but you can definitely expect updates from now on._

_This chapter's about 2090 words long, I guess it's a prologue so you can definitely expect longer chapters in the future._

_Anyway, until next time!_

**-LucidClockwork**


	2. The Blonde on the Swingset

**Yep I'm back and I'll update you on the votes so far:**

**Full Color-**

**Memory Escape-**

**Light within Darkness-**

**Past Colors of Darkness-**

**Just a note,**

**Everything before the last chapter was absolute canon except for a few things. I have made it so that the truth of the Uchiha massacre had come out before Pain's Assault and Sasuke was present.**

**Unlike the first time I posted the story, I am going to post a new chapter every Thursday, Tuesday and Sunday. This way, I can be more organised and you readers will know when a new chapter will be posted. However chapters may not be posted all the time since I do have a life and wish to spend it however I like.**

**Constructive criticism is recommended. **

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

Black, then white, then black again until it finally brought her full colors. Sakura struggled to keep her eyes open under the bright light that shined through the window of her room. Was she in the hospital? Had Sasuke somehow had been able to keep her alive? Sakura shifted under her covers before trying to wake her weak muscles from their sleep.

_My room? Shouldn't I be in a hospital room?_

Flashbacks of the world of endless darkness came back to her. She struggled to lift her hand in front of her face.

_How long have I been unconscious for my arms to be this weak?_

However the fingers that were wiggling in her face were not hers. Sakura jumped out of her bed before falling over and realising how weak her legs were. The pinkette glanced over to the mirror a few feet away from her. She let out an inaudible scream; she was in her four year old body. The darkness had found a way back to her.

Black spots filled her vision before she heard her head thump to the ground. Then everything was completely black, no white, no noise, no sound, no nothing.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She groaned as she woke again, the four year old body was still there. Sakura picked at herself. Her forehead was huge; she frowned and poked at it. Now looking at her whole face, she smiled. She honestly didn't understand why people had teased her about her forehead when she was younger. Sure it was large but it was only made large so the rest of her features looked nice. She wouldn't say she looked ugly, neither would she say she looked super pretty.

Sakura's head shot up, suddenly sensing two other chakras in the household. It felt familiar, like her oka-san and oto-san's but she had just woken up in her four year old body. She didn't know whether to trust them or not.

Her heartbeat started accelerating as her oka-san's distinct chakra came closer and closer towards her. Sakura rushed to the wardrobe and quickly rummaged through her clothes until she came upon a familiar pair of lime-green leggings and black elbow length shirt with three styled rips on each sleeve. Her mind was in full panic mode now, she grabbed all she could, not knowing whether someone was an enemy or not.

Sakura quickly looked at everything she had picked up, a ninja pouch with only three shuriken and a few herbs, a shirt, pants and a green ribbon.

The doorknob was starting to turn now; Sakura opened the window and jumped out. Steadily, she tried to balance herself in the air but failing and landing on her face.

"Ow!" She cried.

Her voice was realllllyyy… high pitched… No wonder the girls in the academy picked on her. She always knew that it was more than her eyes, hair and forehead.

An amused nicker left someone's mouth, Sakura raised her head to meet the eyes of two people. Itachi Uchiha and an unfamiliar ninja, Sakura gulped.

The unfamiliar ninja was a female kunoichi in training with sky blue hair in a messy braid and distrustful chocolate orbs. Sakura shuttered as she snickered at her. Her eyes were harsh, mean and cold. Her appearance deceived her eyes; she wore a white sleeveless shirt with a brown vest over the top. Her brown boots and brown mid-thigh shorts made her look beautiful but Sakura knew that this girl could not be trusted. She was the age of ten or eleven, she reminded Sakura of how immature she was when she was that age. The girl stuck out her tongue at her and hugged Itachi's arm close to her chest.

Itachi looked ten years younger; his pony tail was almost a foot shorter. He looked so innocent, so unaware of the decisions he would have to make to save the village. The decisions he'd have to make to benefit the village would destroy Sasuke inside and out. It would make him lose his mind until he unwarily killed Naruto and her.

_Naruto! Is… Is he okay? Is he stuck in this place too?_

"That was quite a long fall? Are you okay?" The boy asked politely.

Was this how Itachi was back when he was young? Is this the real Itachi?

Sakura visibly flinched when he held out his hand; she slapped it away and dashed away. She was confused by everything. Everyone didn't have a clue that they were currently in the middle of an invasion and seemed to just act like everything was fine but… Nothing was fine…

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It had been over an hour since her encounter with Itachi and the stranger. Sakura changed out of her sleep wear and into her clothes. She had to admit, it was strange wearing clothes she clearly remembered throwing out because the she had grown out of it.

She sighed, trying to get her head over everything and slightly rocked in the park's swing.

Naruto had told her that whenever he felt sad, he would sit at the park's swing and just think things over. She really missed Naruto; she landed in an unfamiliar world with unfamiliar people that looked younger than the people in the real world. There was not a soul that knew what she was going through.

_**Drip..**_

_Great_! She was a fifteen year old in a four year old body but was still unable to control the liquid running down her face.

_**Drip… Drip…**_

Her lips quivered, she didn't even know what she was crying about.

**Drip… Drip, drip… drip**

She was crying full on tears now. There wasn't anyone in the park or anyone in the world that could help her. She sobbed and sniffed, trying to blink away the tears. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Are… Are you okay?" A quiet voice asked.

The blonde stood in front of her, wearing a simple white shirt with the Uzumaki swirl proudly displayed in the middle. It was definitely the Naruto in this world but… but it wasn't the Naruto she knew. This Naruto didn't share any of the memories she cherished so much. It wasn't Naruto at all…

Sakura looked up at him, horrified at what kind of sick joke someone was playing on her. Her hand slipped from the chains of the swing, she stood up and looked him right in the face so he could see her bloodshot eyes. She couldn't control herself. She wanted to hug him, make sure that he was real and not just an illusion but she just stood still. She was scared; scared that if she touched him, she would find out that it was just a genjutsu, a figment of her imagination.

They stood in silence for minutes. Naruto was slightly backing away, unsure of what she could do to him.

She saw the loneliness, the sadness and the despair in his eyes. Something only someone genuinely lonely could show. It set her off…

She quickly turned away without a word, letting her legs take her to another place. She wanted to get away from this fake Naruto, out of this illusion that seemed so real. As Sakura ran, she missed the look of anguish and rejection on the blonde's face.

* * *

**Yep that's it, it's changed a bit but I hope to make this a bit more emotional than it was the last time I wrote this chapter.**

**Votes for the name of this fanfiction are still ongoing. The next chapter will be posted around Tuesday… PM me or write a review, either way is fine.**

**-LucidClockwork**


	3. KIA Stone

**I'm back for the 3****rd**** chapter! I'll update you on the votes so far:**

**Full Color- 2 votes**

**Memory Escape- 0 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 0 votes**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 0 votes**

**(Remember voting ends on the eleventh chapter) **

**Just a note,**

**I hope to make the rest of the chapters between 2000-3000 words. That… Is one of my goals… (This might sound weird but just picture a girl with raven black hair with however else you think I look like standing on a cliff with the ocean waves crashing against the rough rocks. Medium sized hair flowing in the wind… Yeah… Nah, that doesn't match my style. Then just picture me falling off the cliff… That's more like it…)**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

She stood in front of the KIA stone in training ground three. Sakura knelt down and rubbed her finger on one of the names on the stone.

_Obito Uchiha_

In the real world, the stone held a few more names.

_Asuma Sarutobi_

_Hiruzen Sarutobi_

Sakura felt her hand clench a kunai that had been left in the grass of the training grounds. The place was an illusion, none of this was real but it felt so real… the small details to the major ones. This Konoha was perfectly replicated to look like the one in the real world but she wasn't falling for it.

She raised her hands and performed a handsign.

"Kai!"

The world didn't swirl or even flicker quickly in and out of existence. Sakura bit her lip. The genjutsu must have been cast by a strong genjutsu user. She considered the second option to escape.

The rosette raised the kunai up to arm, quickly slashing a long and shallow cut down the length of her small arm so that it was almost felt painless apart from the irritating sting that came with it.

Nothing happened. Sakura dropped the kunai, slightly wincing as her hand emitted a lighter shade of green chakra than usual, her medical ninjutsu also taking its effect much slower than she was used to. She cried in frustration, she was once the most renowned medical ninja across the shinobi land and now hardly capable to heal one of the most basic medical procedures. Sakura toppled onto the memorial stone.

_My chakra reserves are pathetic too…_

Sakura saw drops of blood stain the names of the dead. Her vision fluttered before she faded from the green of the world and into the darkness of a familiar place she had been at least three times in the last twenty four hours.

_So I'm really in the past, this place isn't a genjutsu, nor an illusion._

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

She felt someone lightly tap their foot over her head and then one in her side. Sakura groaned and grabbed the foot and pushed it away. The rosette childishly rubbed her eyes and gazed up at the person.

She widened her eyes, it was Kakashi but in his ANBU uniform.

"Kakashi-sensei?" She asked in her ridiculously high voice. She immediately covered her mouth with her hands.

_Shit…_

The ANBU knelt down beside her, taking off his mask and glaring at her.

"How did you know me?" He whispered harshly.

Sakura cowered under his gaze. The Kakashi she had known was much more… relaxed. Kakashi stood up gazed at her, much softer this time. He almost held some innocent curiosity.

"Who wouldn't know you? You're in the bingo books!" Her voice slightly cracked at the end, she guessed that she still wasn't used to her voice yet. It was slightly true; she just hoped that he believed her excuse.

He seemed to believe her asked no more questions and instead stood and turned his gaze to the stone.

"Aa, so you know my name but I don't know yours?"

"S-Sakura Haruno," She stuttered. She blushed a bit; she had never noticed how tall her sensei was.

Kakashi closed the one eye that was visible to her and seemed deep in thought before kneeling down again and rubbing her blood off one of the names of the stone. She turned bright pink, hoping that he didn't realise that the blood was hers.

"Well then, Sakura-chan," He said in a gentle voice.

"Do you know why these names are here? On this stone?"

_Of course she knew, _in fact she was certain that her name would've been there when Sasuke and Naruto stabbed her, ultimately leading her to her death.

She shook her head.

"These ninjas, they are considered heroes. They are truly honourable ninja; they served Konoha until the very end," Sakura could almost see the sad smile behind his mask.

Her mind wondered to the day where Team 7 had their first exercise together.

**FLASHBACK**

"_When I become hokage, my name will be there! Cause' I'm a hero!" The blonde excitedly chattered._

"_Naruto," Sakura briefly cut him off._

"_These ninja were KIA, killed in action,"_

_Naruto shut up as an eerie silence filled the clearing. Kakashi sadly looked at one specific name on the kunai-shaped stone._

_Obito Uchiha…_

_Sakura noticed the slight drop in her sensei's posture before she redirected her thoughts to Sasuke. She hoped his name would never be carved on. If that time came, she hoped Sasuke would have died protecting her._

_Like that, all her thoughts of her sensei's fallen comrade were pushed to the back of her mind._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

"These ninja were KIA, killed in action," Sakura softly repeated the words she had said on that day.

Kakashi looked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Do ever plan to be a ninja Sakura?" He asked.

She figured that Obito was a painful subject for him, almost how Sasuke was a painful subject for both Naruto and her.

"Of course! I want to be a ninja, I want to protect the ones Konoha! The home of the ones I love!" Her heart panged at her own statement.

_You were never able to protect anyone; you were always the one protected…_

"Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their teammates are below trash," Kakashi closed his eyes, reminiscing.

"I hope to see young ninja not repeating the mistakes I have done,"

Sakura's gaze fell to the ground; unconsciously she began kicking around the dirt, unsettling minor erosion. Kakashi's hand left her shoulder before he bid her a silent goodbye. Sakura didn't notice, lost deep in her thoughts.

_Does this make you lower than trash, Sasuke-kun?_

Somehow her heart refused to associate trash with Sasuke, she sighed. After all, everything he had done had benefited himself, not his teammates but she still couldn't do it.

Was she still the annoying fangirl from the academy? Had she really not changed at all? She shook her head again before sitting down and looking at the wavering grass. She couldn't say she was the same, neither could she say she was completely different. She no longer held a simple crush for the Uchiha; she didn't know how close she held him to her heart.

She couldn't bring herself to say she loved him, no matter how much anyone tried. Her mind wondered to the gift of a lifetime.

She had just realised how much of a power she held. She knew every single detail of the future, she could change everything. The only thing it couldn't do was take away the years of pain and torture Sasuke brought upon everyone.

Maybe it was time she just let go…

He wasn't ever going to love her the way she did…

And that was it…

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The night had just started to descend upon Konoha. Civilians ushered kids inside before slamming the door to their house firmly shut. Sakura decided that she wouldn't go home just yet…

Although she was just a four year old child, she had no worries about being attacked by anyone. Konoha was generally a safe place, no one dared to commit crimes such as kidnapping and murder within the village. There were ANBU and jounin everywhere, most major crimes happened outside of Konoha.

The rosette wondered the streets of Konoha until she finally reached the park. Surprisingly Naruto was still on the very same swing set looking downcast. He didn't seem to notice her as he kept on gazing at the houses in the village. Lights were rapidly turning off in the village, mostly after parents had sung a lullaby before putting the civilian children to rest.

Naruto just kept staring. There wasn't a hint of emotion on his face, no loneliness or sadness at all. He was just lost in his thoughts.

Sakura slapped a mosquito on her arm which caught the blonde's attention.

Sakura put on a bright smile and walked over to him. Naruto was slightly intimidated, her earlier actions had probably clouded his thoughts.

"Ohayo!" She smiled.

_No reply_

She bit her lip.

"I'm Sakura Haruno,"

_Still no reply_

Sakura walked forward and engulfed the boy in a hug, her head slightly leaning onto his shoulder.

"I'm sorry about before, will you be my friend?"

He was deadly silent; she could hear the crickets chirping as they both stood in that awkward position. Slowly, he brought up his arms and wrapped her in it unsurely, almost as if he hardly ever had someone giving him direct contact. He acted almost like he had never been hugged before.

It kinda made her heart stop.

Although she knew about his loneliness in her old life, she had never seen him in his lonely hours.

His head leant onto her shoulder.

"N-Na-Naruto… U-Uzuma-maki," He stuttered.

She frowned, Naruto never stuttered.

"Naruto… What a nice name,"

His confidence seemed to strengthen slightly.

"S-Sakura-chan… I want to be your friend,"

* * *

**SO KAWAIIII! SO KAWAIIIIII! SO KAWAIIIIIII!**

**Love this chapter so much! SO KAWAIIIIII!**

**R&amp;R**

**Next chapter might be late!**

**-LucidClockwork**


	4. The Broken Heather

**Eek! I'm so sorry for not updating on Thursday! I was a little overwhelmed with homework but I was still going to update the story. Then a fucking headache comes along which went for two days. On the second day, I also came down with a fever! Gee thanks kami! Is this because I made an OC?!**

**Anyways...Thank you so very much for the reviews in the last chapter, I'll update you on the votes:**

**Full Color- 2 votes**

**Memory Escape- 1 vote**

**Light within Darkness- 0 votes**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 1 vote**

**Now reviews!**

**Meow ****– **True, there is going to be minor SasuIno but it is going to be one-sided (you can probably figure out which side). Sasusaku is endgame, no need to worry your pretty little head! ;)

**BizzyLizy**** – **And thank you for reviewing! Really appreciate it!

**Dane21 ****– **Oh Sakura won't give up on Sasuke! Otherwise this wouldn't be a sasusaku fanfic! I will be introducing a new way Sakura treats Sasuke, but remember that she is still unforgiving for his mistakes. I assure you, Sakura will not give up on Sasuke and that's a promise!

**Just a note,**

**After I have released chapter 8, I will be taking a little vacation on updating say… one month. I have not yet planned the story past that stage of the story so I will be writing up new notes and story plans for the next 8-10 chapters of the story. Don't be alarmed when I do not update past that point. There will be a three day notice before I release the chapter nine and the rest of the chapters one by one.**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

Her parents had finally enrolled her in the academy, although it was her second time Sakura still felt the childish glee she had felt the first time. This was the turning point and the start of her career, this was the point in time when everything had gone wrong and this time, there would be someone to fix everything.

With new found determination from her self-assigned mission, the rosette skipped past her parents and through the gates of the academy. Sakura couldn't help but squeal with excitement as a vague memory of her past life resurfaced.

There was a long line of parents at the reception, waiting to sign up their child. Loud murmurs and mutters filled the halls as her oka-san placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura-chan, go play with the other children, oto-san and I will sign you up here," Mebuki smiled.

The blonde woman gave her a slight pat/push before she stumbled forward and out of the reception line. Her previous position in the line no longer seen as the large crowds filled of civilians and ninjas filled her place.

She picked up on some annoyed murmurs of the villagers further ahead in the line.

_Isn't that the devil boy?_

_They let him enrol here too?_

_Pft, if the village is destroyed by that beast I won't hesitate to say to the hokage 'I told you so'_

_Such monstrosity, the hokage have lost his marble if the kyu-_

_Hush! You know it's illegal to say that!_

Her attention snapped to the blonde further ahead in the line. Many villagers had gathered around the boy while also shielding their children away from the blonde. Many civilians directed their gazes at the boy as the chatter travelled down the line. Sakura had never seen this much hate from anyone, not even Sasuke. She shuddered.

She was telling herself to move, to defend him but she knew, she knew that even she couldn't handle the hateful stares. It would be too overwhelming, Sakura suddenly realised how lonely he was. Of course she knew that Naruto was lonely, but never had she expected him to be this lonely.

Sakura had seen him in his lonely hours on the swing at the park but that kind of loneliness was nothing compared to what she was seeing in front of her. She was disgusted; disgusted that Konoha's people could treat someone so horribly.

Naruto exchanged a brief glance with Sakura, knowing that she would be able to read all his thoughts within a few seconds of the connection between azure and emerald. She understood everything… and more…

Naruto backed away from the hateful glares before turning his back and heading behind the academy building, Sakura followed suit.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

They sat side by side in a flower field where kunoichi in training would practice flower arts and where she had first met Ino. Naruto placed his elbows behind his back and leant back into the sweet smelling flowers and grass.

"You're my first friend Sakura-chan," He murmured.

"I didn't want you to see that,"

Sakura was silent and picked up one of the nearby flowers in the field and handed it Naruto.

"A broken flower…" He mumbled dejectedly.

"A broken heather flower," Sakura pushed the trampled flower closer to his chest and remembered the words Ino had once spoken to her.

"Do you know why I gave you a broken flower?"

Naruto shook his head and gazed down at the flower, it was once a beautiful flower but was trampled by careless kunoichi when practicing their flower arts.

"This plant is a heather flower. Heathers are a sign of solitude,"

"Solitude?" Naruto asked expectantly.

"The state of being alone,"

She continued.

"I gave you that broken flower because no matter how lonely you are, it only takes little effort to get rid of loneliness," Sakura gripped his hand and smiled.

"My friendship has already started to trample over your solitude,"

The corner of the blonde's mouth slowly lifted to a bright smile she had come to know in her old life.

"Wow! Thank you Sakura-chan!" Naruto tried to sound nonchalant but she could tell her words had a strong effect on him. The blonde started to gather orange flowers in bunches while Sakura let her imagination wonder elsewhere.

Off in the distance, she spotted a young Sasuke with Itachi affectionately patting him on his head along with the blue-haired girl. They locked eyes for a moment, the red and black pattern of the sharingan quickly flashed over her chocolate eyes before they disappeared as fast as they came.

Sakura blinked.

_Did she just imagine that?_

Sakura shook her head trying to clear her thoughts. There was no way that girl could've possessed the sharingan, the dōjutsu was only passed down in the Uchiha clan. She would no longer linger on the topic, there was no way the girl could've used the sharingan and that was it.

Her thoughts travelled to how she was going to save the Uchiha clan from the Uchiha massacre. She couldn't just kill Itachi it wouldn't be right and the future may turn out for the worse. The Uchiha were brainwashed and she had to get them to stop their ways of corruption. All the problems had risen from Danzo and the Elders.

Maybe it was time for new Elders…

Sakura gripped the blades of grass beneath her palm. The only reason this had all started was because of the ill-will of the Uchiha clan from being treated the way they did. If Konoha elected new Elders, she was sure that glory would return back to the clan.

"Hey Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Naruto asked.

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and looked over to the blonde and the orange flowers in his hand. She smiled as she took the flowers from Naruto and smelt them. The aroma of sugar and salt reached her nose. It reminded her of ramen.

"I'm fine, these flowers look really nice. The last time I picked flowers with someone was when…" her voice trailed off.

**FLASHBACK**

_The bullies had done it again; she should be used to it. It happened almost everyday since she had first come to the academy but it didn't lower the quantity of tears streaming down her face. Sakura sniffed, her body shaking and heaving along with the irregular breathing. They tugged at her hair, poked roughly at her forehead and called her mean names. She didn't like it._

_Then the girls all ran away with their tails between their legs, Sakura didn't look up, she was scared that the person who scared them off was even meaner and harsher._

"_You always get called forehead girl and get picked on, huh?"_

_Sakura lifted her head slightly, her bubblegum-pink bangs falling in front of her puffy, bloodshot eyes. Her arms desperately trying to wipe away the tears, she didn't want to be called weak._

_The girl in front of her looked different from all the other girls, pale blonde hair that was short and a few strands of hair held together with a aqua-blue hair clip. She looked confident, everything Sakura was not._

"_I'm Yamanaka Ino,"_

"_Sakura," She whispered shortly, her voice slightly cracking. _

"_I can't hear you. Speak up,"_

_Sakura didn't reply, her head lowered as more tears made their way down her cheek. She closed her eyes in a desperate attempt to stop the tears. Then the girl's skinny finger poked her forehead but unlike the bullies, her poke was light so it wouldn't hurt her._

"_I see. So your forehead is wide," The girl's voice rang out._

_Sakura looked up to meet the eyes of the girl, pale baby blue eyes. She was beautiful, so unlike her. The girl's finger receded and her whole hand went under her bangs, pushing the pink strands upwards to reveal her forehead._

"_Just like a ghost," The girl's words were soft. They weren't mean and harsh; the blonde wasn't intending to hurt her. Sakura sniffed some more, she wasn't sure what this girl was trying to do but she spoke the truth. It was scary._

_Ino held a red ribbon to Sakura before she pushed the rosette's bangs to the side before tying the ribbon a top her head._

"_I'll give you that ribbon; you get picked on because you hide your forehead,"_

"_You're cute, so don't be afraid," Sakura's eyes widened, the girl had just complemented her, helped her._

_That was the start to the friendship; they promised each other that they would be best friends forever but sometimes… Things just weren't meant to be…_

**END OF FLASHBACK**

"Was when what Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

Sakura shook her head as if she was trying to clear her thoughts.

"It doesn't matter,"

She had been selfish in her past life, taking her bonds for granted. She had ended her bond with Ino over such a selfish reason. This was second chance for her; she would repair all the mistakes and make sure she wouldn't repeat them… And that was a promise she would never break!

* * *

**Eugh, I'm sorry peeps. I know that I said that the chapters were going to be over 2000 words but I just can't seem to so it. I feel so bad when I end with chapter that isn't as long as it should be and for that I am truly sorry.**

**Though, some good things in this chapter happened. This is most likely my favourite chapter so far. The other chapters aren't going to be this fluffy in the sense of emotions and such.**

**Voting is still ongoing; the next chapter will probably be on Tuesday.**

**Ciao,**

**-LucidClockwork**


	5. The Concept of her Loss

**Hi guys! This isn't going to continue from where I last updated, I feel like I have messed up the storyline a little so this chapter is going to be a little filler chapter so Sukai has more evidence on Sakura before she goes ahead and murders Sakura's parents. Anyways enjoy~!**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY!**

* * *

"Sasuke,"

The voice was distant, uninterested but the black haired boy didn't take any notice. He simply flared his chakra yet again before releasing a ball of fire purely created from his own chakra, the fireball hovered over the lake. The wooden dock in which the boy was standing slightly caught flames from exploding embers, however water from the lake just splashed over quickly putting out the flames before any major damage could be caused. Steam wrapped around the fireball like a smokescreen, a combination of evaporating lake water and smoke from the fireball.

The flames dulled away, much of the lake's water had evaporated leaving less than half the amount the lake had begun with. The young boy wiped his arm over his forehead then the sweat onto his clothes.

He turned around and grinned, horribly out of character for his older counterpart, at the older man standing meters away behind him. The man briskly pivoted his body away from the younger boy, his facial expressions showing no signs of disapproval or pleasure.

"You still have quite a bit to work on, at this rate you might never catch up to Itachi,"

The simple sentence left the younger boy with a frown. The boy gazed over the lake, inspecting the lake and observing small details. The waves that his fireball caused and the burns that appeared on the wooden dock he stood on. He walked further down the dock that extended until the near-middle of the lake and crouched down, his breath hummed between a sigh and a cough.

"Arigatō, Uchiha-sama for helping me. I suppose I'll never catch up to Itachi ne?"

The older Uchiha's gaze softened at the young boy's disheartened posture. He feebly walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Do not fret Sasuke-sama for you are not Itachi. You are yourself and you do not need to live in Itachi's shadow. I'm sure your father see's you for who you are, you do not need to gain his approval or anything silly like that,"

The Uchiha elder was obviously not very good at consoling children, the boy continued sulking, his bangs hiding his eyes under shadows.

"Tou-san always talks about Itachi-nii, I want to be stronger so that I'm the one Tou-san talks about. I'll never get stronger if I can't even evaporate the entire lake after my eighth week of trying!"

The elder didn't say anything, he just continued patting the boy on the shoulder before helping him out and leading him back to the Uchiha household.

A pink haired girl sat silently upon a high branch in a nearby tree, enhancing her chakra to be able to catch their conversation. It was tempting, enticing, inviting her to join and reveal herself. She frowned.

Sasuke had still not talked to her yet and it endlessly worried her. She was scared that she would not be able to help prevent the Uchiha massacre after all. It seemed like there was hardly anytime left until the event happened. Sakura would have to work quickly, developing a plan, initiating it, counting in risks, possibilities...

The thought of how much plotting she would have to do made her head hurt.

Earlier that day, the rosette managed to take possession of a top secret scroll containing all the details of the Uchiha massacre. Without a second thought she burnt the parchment to crisps, Sakura knew that the burning of the parchment wasn't enough to ensure the prevention of the massacre but it would surely slow down the plan.

There had been one problem that was inevitably unavoidable. While Sakura had quickly created a diversion at the central location near where the parchment was stored, the rosette missed a crucial detail that may or may not ensure her downfall.

The was a ROOT ANBU where the scroll was, wearing a goat's mask, female, light colored hair. Even worse, the kunoichi had been able pierce her skin with a senbon needle incredibly close to a pressure point. Although Sakura had taken extra precautions such as henging and concealing her chakra, the rosette had a bad feeling that the senbon would somehow result in a disaster.

After Sakura arrived at the lake, she carefully ripped out the senbon and wiped it clean of blood. However, just as she was about to tuck the senbon away she heard distant voices headed straight for the clearing, immediately she dropped the needle and dashed up the tallest tree, concealing her chakra and watching whatever was about to happen unfold.

Needless to say, Sakura never realised how much attention the Uchiha yearned from his father. Even the Uchiha Elder agreed that Itachi was most definitely the favorite child between the two. Sakura was an only child, she never had to worry about a favorite child seeing as she was the only child.

_It must be hard to be neglected by your parents, I wonder if Sasuke's hate stemmed from the matter of the favorite child?_

There were lots of things neither Sakura or Naruto would understand about Sasuke but that wouldn't stop the rosette from trying to help him.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Lately, Sakura had been gazing constantly over her shoulder. It was almost as if there was someone watching her in the shadows. The rosette felt the presence disappear after a moment but the foreign chakra always clung irritably at her mind. There wouldn't be anyone watching her while she was this young, she hadn't even acted suspicious enough for anyone to be keeping an eye on her yet her senses always detected something following her.

Sakura sighed and pulled at her collar while rubbing her temple. She sat on the floor of her bedroom, sheets and sheets of paper depicting diagrams and notes of what was to happen later on in the future.

The Uchiha Massacre was the first priority on her list along with befriending Naruto and Ino once again. The issue of the cursed seal would come later on and Sakura would deal with Orochimaru then. The Hyūga Affair had already happened in this timeline, she couldn't do anything but console ōinata and hope that she wasn't too traumatized by what had happened but seeing as two years had passed, Sakura didn't think that there was anything she could do at this point.

Sakura fell back against the carpeted floor, heaving out a shaky sigh. After looking at the bigger picture her mission didn't seem all that bad after all. The Uchiha Massacre could possibly be the hardest obstacle to overcome. Danzō, the elders, Itachi, the coupe and Sasuke's quest for revenge. Maybe she shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, the Uchiha Massacre would be a pain.

The rosette ripped out that page of her notebook and placed it on top of the other papers she would be reading over later. Messily, she scribbled down another event that would take place in the nearby future.

The Akatsuki was originally founded by Yahiko with the purpose of trying to bring peace to their home country, Amegakure. Yahiko's death was the trigger of the Akatsuki's new, darker purpose. The rosette frowned and held the note close to her face. Hanzō and Danzō had conspired to eliminate Nagato, Konan and Yahiko, albeit they only ended up killing Yahiko, the ninja world would spiral downwards if any of the three died.

Danzō had already been eliminated and Sakura wasn't sure if he'd already manipulated Hanzō. Besides, her parents were already awaiting her enrollment in the Konoha academy, she would be seen as an enemy even if she was only a child. The rosette knew that she'd gone back to a time where Amegakure and Konohagakure were allies and practically hated each others guts.

She sighed, letting herself fall onto the papers as she glared at the ceiling. There was really no way she could check if Danzō had gotten in touch with the legendary shinobi. The future of the world lay in her unscathed, innocent hands yet she couldn't get past the obstacle of time.

'_What would Naruto say?'_ Sakura inquired quietly.

'**Yes indeed, what would the blonde simpleton do?'**

Sakura jumped at the voice. It was familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it. Something clicked in her mind, the rosette's eyes bulged for a second before returning to its original position.

'_Y-You're that...'_

'**You're quite right Pinkie,' **Sakura could imagine the voice chuckling but what she heard was neither monotonous nor emotionless. It seemed to talk within the depths of her mind, like telepathy, too similar to the sensation she felt in the black abyss of death. If whoever this was was truly using telepathy to communicate, she wouldn't need to speak out loud.

'**You've met me before, in that world of darkness no?'**

She didn't need to reply as the voice continued, **'Usually my job is to let the dead move on but you were different and made my job a thousand times harder,'** The voice paused, **'If you haven't noticed, your small action of befriending that jinchūriki separated you from the world you grew up in,'**

Sakura choked on her spit, bolting up as papers flew everywhere in the room. The rosette winced as her foot accidentally connected with her bed, pain jolted up her leg as she held soothingly.

"Is everything alright Sakura-chan?" Her mother called from downstairs.

"I-I-I'm fine Ka-san!"

'_What do you mean? I separated from my world? You mean this isn't the one I grew up in?'_

The voice contemplated on her words but spoke without a moment's hesitation, **'Well not exactly, I brought you to this timeline because you were too stubborn to die,'** The rosette had no idea why a wide grin spread across her lips**, 'Technically, when you first woke up, you were still in that world just in a different timeline. Your actions changed some things in the future. That world already had a future set in place so in order for your actions to not ruin the balance of space and time I separated this world and that world so time paradoxes are avoided,'**

The rosette blinked. She may have been an intelligent student in the academy but the subject of time travel itself made her head hurt, _'So... What?'_

'**Many casualties were avoided and you're free of charge to change anything you want without it rippling into the future and possibly creating a tear in time itself which would eventually upset world balance,'** Sakura could swear the voice was getting smug with his or her responses, **'So pretty much, your world is moving forward in time without you,'**

Sakura's brow furrowed slightly, _'Sasuke-kun... Naruto-kun... They're moving on without me? Is there any way I can come back?'_

'**Sorry, unfortunately bringing you back to that world is breaking my contract of abiding by Death's rules. If you desperately want to go back, speak to Death himself but I wouldn't recommend it, he's a nasty guy,'**

She sighed dejectedly.

'_So this is my home now? No returning right?'_

'**Let me remind you that this is a chance to change things, wouldn't you take it?'**

The pinkette didn't reply and instead stared intently at the carpeted floor, **'August 25****th**** Year 546 at 17:23 is the day you died in that world. Once you reach that date in this time, the worlds will reconnect and the people you know in that world will be replaced with the ones in this world. Good luck Sakura,'**

The suppressing feeling of the voice's presence disappeared from the edges of her mindscape. Sakura fell back against the floor, watching as dust scattered in the air and out the open window. The boy she loved, her best friend, everything she had worked so hard for had disappeared off her fingertips. The rosette had tied her future into a sophisticated knot that wasn't supposed to be untied so easily, yet death had cut the knot like her dreams and hopes meant nothing.

'_No,' _Sakura told herself, _'Don't think like that, its not like everything's gone to hell,'_ It was true. She still had Naruto, she still had Sasuke but yet... She didn't. The blonde and Uchiha weren't the people she shared such fond memories with. These people were strangers, complete strangers.

Sakura never felt so alone.

But she had no choice. Like Tsunade-shishou used to say, there was no use crying over spilt milk. Crying wasn't going to help her get back to the ones she loved. The rosette simply had to accept that she had to get used to her new beginning.

She felt her world darken, a bittersweet smile spread across her face as her body rose and fell with oncoming sleep. She let sleep take over before her body rested peacefully in the middle of her room. Her important notes safely sealed away, only Tsunade and herself knowing how to undo the seal.

All the notes of the future were stored away from prying eyes, all except one that now lay in the hands of a murderous ANBU, with a goat's mask hiding a face and head full of light blue hair.

"So this child knows huh?" She whispered.

With no further pondering thoughts, the ANBU scrunched the papers tightly in her fists until it was engulfed by an eerie purple chakra. Ashes of the paper gently and carelessly drifted to the ground and into a neat pile.

Flames lit the pile alight, black flames of Amaterasu.

* * *

**That's the filler right there! Honestly, this chapter was supposed to add more evidence tying Sakura in the Uchiha Massacre but I felt that it wasn't enough to make a single chapter so I added in the concept of how this particular time travel worked. This character isn't some random character that I just threw in, in fact, this character will play a big role in Sakura's character development.**

**No, its not Inner Sakura.**

**I think that's all I need to say.**

**-LucidClockwork**


	6. The Massacre

**Welcome back! I'll update you on the votes:**

**Full Color- 3 votes**

**Memory Escape- 2 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 0 votes**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 1 vote**

**Remember, voting ends on the 11****th**** chapter which I can assure you will not end until mid-September or somewhere around that time.**

**Now, reviews!**

**BizzyLizy****\- **_Thanks for reviewing! It's okay, this fanfiction will always be waiting for you when you get back. I hope you have a fun time at your cottage. Just a question… Is it a country cottage or other? I've always wanted to have another house, cottage or holiday house somewhere in the country…_

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

**!WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOOD AND GORE. IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH SUCH CONTENT PLEASE SKIP THE PART WHERE THE CONTENT BEGINS.**

* * *

She had spent the whole morning developing a strong poison to assassinate Danzo and the Elders. Sakura knelt down on the grass of the training grounds, furiously scribbling down notes on the poisons and how each ingredient would alter the properties of the poison. Wind ruffled through her hair, Sakura pushed back her bangs as they were irritating her eyes.

She had no idea why she hadn't pushed her bangs to each side of her forehead before Ino had come along, surely the irritation of the hair would've caused her to push them to the side no matter what anyone said. Apparently not…

_Just enough wolf's bane so it's odourless but has an effect when it comes in contact with Danzo, I'll infuse it with my chakra so I have control over the poison when it enters Danzo's bloodstream it won't take effect immediately. I'll be able to take care of Danzo and the Elders; I'll make their deaths completely random…_

Sakura wiped the sweat from her brow, she picked all her equipment from the grass of the training grounds, no one could know what she was doing otherwise her whole plan would come down. The rosette planned to develop the poison so it would just look like water in a spray bottle. She would be the only one who would actually know what the bottle contained.

Her work was far from over, so far, her poison only had enough strength to knock someone out. Sakura needed to kill but she was no cold-blooded killer, even if Danzo and the Elders had done much worse.

The girl lifted her backpack over her shoulder after making sure she had left nothing.

_Three years… I have three years before the Uchiha Massacre… This poison should take at least half a year to make and even then, I'd have to find a way to break in the Root Chambers…_

Unknown to the rosette, a ninja was seated on a high branch of the tree she was under. The shinobi concealed her chakra perfectly, she watched as Sakura walked away from the tree before turning on her headpiece and reporting in.

"Subject is developing a poison that contains high amounts of wolf's bane, so far it seems to be strong enough to knock out someone. Very suspicious for a five-year old to have knowledge of poisons, even more suspicious that she is even developing the poison. Subject Sakura Haruno knows more than she should," The voice was feminine, quiet enough so only the headpiece could pick on it.

A reply came back.

"Do you have any you have any information on why the subject would be developing the poison?"

The kunoichi glanced over to Sakura as she bit her lip and added some type of seed to the mix as well.

"I've been following the subject for over a year now. Ever since she suddenly fell out of the window I've been suspicious of the child, you even made it a mission for me. Under your request, I've observed her from a far. Sakura Haruno has befriended the Jinchūriki, Naruto Uzumaki," She narrowed her eyes at the child below her before continuing.

"I've seen the girl with others. She's hiding something, the faraway look of coldness when she's deep in thought. Only experienced ninjas can ever have that look. Haruno acted very mature around others her age, something that should occur with someone as innocent as that child seems and..." She paused for a moment, "Do you remember the incident a few days back?"

"The parchment that concealed crucial details for the oncoming Uchiha massacre was stolen, I was there fending off the thief but ultimately he or she escaped with the scroll but somehow I had managed to hit the thief with a senbon. I found the senbon near a lake, unfortunately the thief wiped off the blood leaving no trace of who they are,"

"Haruno Sakura... Has been spotted hanging around the Uchiha residence, hanging onto a tightly concealed parchment seal which she later burnt. She knows about the upcoming Uchiha massacre you're planning. The note she wrote proved it. The only scenario I can think of is that she's planning to kill someone with that poison to prevent the massacre. Perhaps we could send someone to show her the consequences of a kill?"

"Very good observation, Sukai. Your first Root mission, operation Haru-Gyakusatsu, do not hold back. Do anything to complete the mission, we can always spare a civillian clan," Danzo's voice rung out.

Sukai switched off the headpiece and closed her eyes. Sky-blue hair swayed in the wind behind her mask that represented a goat.

_Such a shame I couldn't have known a bit about the girl first, no matter, missions must be completed._

She opened her eyes, revealing the sharingan that swirled in the pattern of the three tomoe.

_I'll show you to not mess with Master Danzo…_

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

There was still three hours to go before her parents asked her to come back to the house. Sakura decided to buy some things for Naruto. She entered a weapon shop, smiling once she saw a familiar face in the shop. Tenten stood behind the counter, discussing some things with her mother whom Sakura presumed owned the shop.

"Well, hi there! Didn't notice you there!" Tenten's mother knelt down and rubbed her cheek affectionately. Tenten huffed and looked away, she looked jealous.

Sakura sweatdropped and turned her attention to the woman.

"Can I get some weapons?" The rosette asked in her awfully high pitched voice, she was still adjusting…

The brown haired woman smiled and passed Sakura three packs of ten kunai and three packs of fifteen shuriken.

"That'll be 8000 ryo but seeing how cute you are I'll charge you half the price, 4000 ryo," The older woman winked.

"What!? But I-"Tenten protested.

"Hush now Tenten! What did I tell you about customers?" She scolded.

Tenten huffed and crossed her arms before sending a glare Sakura's way. The rosette sweatdropped, it'd been her first interaction with Tenten and she was already on bad terms with her. Sakura payed the price before the woman rushed off to do something else, leaving Tenten and Sakura together.

"Hey! I saw you at the academy; you want to be a ninja?" Tenten asked.

Sakura blushed before nodding.

"I'm a year older than you so I'll definitely be a stronger ninja!" Tenten boasted.

Sakura smirked.

"We'll see about that!"

They bumped fists and looked at each other in determination. It was the start of their rivalry and somehow, Sakura knew that the bond would escalate to friendship sooner or later.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Sakura made her way to Naruto's apartment, it was rundown in all its glory and almost looked unliveable. Sakura walked up the stairs with a plastic bag in her hand containing clothes, food and weapons. She supposed that Naruto would get the amount of things she had gotten in one day in one month.

The rosette rapped her fists on the wooden door before a tired looking blonde made his way to the door. Sakura shot him a bright smile.

"Eh? Sakura-chan, why're you here?" Naruto rubbed his eyes.

Sakura couldn't help but let her inner squeal.

_Kawaii! _

"I bought you a few things! Can I come in?"

Naruto opened the door and signalled her to come in. Sakura wrinkled her nose in disgust as she had come in. Water dripped from the ceiling. There was no carpet and a rotting wooden floor. A massive hole about the size of a tree stump was located in the small space the blonde called his bedroom.

Naruto noticed her expression and rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Sorry Sakura-chan, If I knew you were coming I would've made the place cleaner dattebayo!"

Sakura shook her head and placed the bag onto the wooden table. She took out a black and orange jacket along with orange pants that represented his older counterpart's clothing choice. It was too large but Sakura supposed that it would fit him in ten years, better early than late.

"Sakura-chan! Does it fit me?" Naruto asked, she saw the excited glint in his eye as he put the jacket in front of his body.

Sakura laughed as the jacket touched the ground.

"I bought these clothes so you won't have to look for clothes later on, it'll probably fit you when you're fifteen,"

Naruto pouted and put the jacket back onto the table while Sakura laid out the other objects onto the table.

"How much did this cost Sakura-chan?"

"Not much, just around 15000 ryo. Don't feel bad, my oka-san and oto-san always go on missions so we get lots of money," Naruto looked down and kicked the ground beneath him.

"Last time I tried to buy something, I couldn't afford it," Naruto mumbled.

Sakura raised her eyebrow and placed down a six pack of instant ramen.

"How much ryo?"

"200000 ryo for a shirt, old man hokage only gives me 80000 ryo a week,"

Unconsciously, Sakura clenched the apple in her hand. All the juices ran down her hand and dripped onto the rotting floor.

"Sorry! I'll clean that up!" Sakura smiled sheepishly.

"No its fine… I'll clean it up,"

"Thanks… I have to go now,"

Sakura mumbled a quick goodbye before taking her leave.

_Had the villagers really stooped as low as to make unfair prices for the blonde?_

Her quick walk back turned into a run. Unknown to her, she had run past the sky-blue haired girl. The older girl looked behind her shoulder before turning on her earpiece.

"Mission completed, subject will discover the bodies immediately," She said quietly.

"Mmhm, mmhm. I've covered up my tracks, the girl won't suspect a thing," Sukai looked up revealing the three tomoe sharingan again. Behind her, she dragged a bloody katana. Sukai switched off the headpiece, lifting the blade and licking the blood.

"I may be young but there's nothing like a little bloodlust,"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

**!WARNING! BLOOD AND GORE**

Sakura was absolutely horrified when she had come home. Her mother, the blonde woman's head was clean off and lying a few feet from the body, her viscera hanging from her head and dripping with blood, Mebuki's limbs ripped off her body and lying in a pile next to her head.

Her father, Kizashi's body wasn't even there; all his flesh was completely shredded into pieces. The only thing that was still in one piece was his head. His brain slightly visible from the angle she was standing.

She was shaking, even as a shinobi, Sakura had never seen so much blood and gore before. She checked their bodies first, any hints to what they were killed with. She found done. All evidence had pointed to the bodies being ripped apart by bare hands. Kizashi's body (or what's left of it) had marks of a katana about twenty-five inches long.

_Don't panic… Don't panic!_

Her breathing was erratic now. Sakura tried to calm herself with no heed. Sakura searched Mebuki's body to find a bloody note in her hand. The rosette could vaguely read the words on the note.

_Haruno Sakura, this will be your fate if you continue to endanger lives with your skills and knowledge. You are not a prodigy, having heard enough information this was our final decision. Stop, turn away and never try to harm. The consequences will only get worse and... don't even try, to prevent the Uchiha massacre._

Her heart stopped. No wonder why she had felt a presence at the training grounds. There was someone there. Sakura frantically searched her house for any shadow of chakra but found none. Only the technique for concealing the shadow until it went away.

There was no doubt the killer was high-level sensory ninja and a female one too. The technique was only available for female sensory ninjas; male sensory ninjas had different reproductive organs that altered their ability to control their chakra.

Sakura broke down, crying full on tears and rocking back and forth in a corner. Suddenly, she understood what Sasuke felt. Losing her family to someone who murdered them in cold blood, she felt she wanted vengeance. Then then her front door slammed open, ANBU came storming in. They took her outside where a whole bunch of villagers were trying to find out what had happened in the Haruno clan household.

**!END OF BLOOD AND GORE!**

The rosette's eyes were puffy and bloodshot; she wiped them and looked down. Her shoulders shaking angrily, she wanted to murder someone but she knew it wouldn't do anything to bring her parents back.

"We're calling the Uchiha clan, they'll look into this," She heard one ANBU say.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Throughout the whole day, ANBU went in and out of her house. Carrying various parts of her parents body in a plastic body bag. The Uchiha clan had come and started to investigate what had happened. The hokage came and organised her to stay in her own apartment. Sakura didn't say anything.

If she was really a five year old, she would be more emotionally unstable. Sakura was a shinobi for three years. She had seen things like this but never would she think for it to be as bad as this.

Then the night came, everyone left except the Uchiha who still looking into the case. She sat outside on her lawn brawling and crying her eyes out. Sakura hadn't been in this timeline for very long but her parents were still her parents. It stung… Her heart hurt...

She felt a hand on her shoulder; she looked up to see Sasuke. He took a seat next to her but he didn't say anything. His silence was comforting; the Uchiha looked over to her and engulfed her in a soft hug. Sakura cried into his chest. He didn't know who she was but she knew who he was.

Sasuke had made time to come help her and it was more than she could ever ask for.

* * *

**Lucky bitches, you got another chapter one day after the previous one. If you didn't notice I got kinda lazy at the end… But I was really excited for this chapter. It had fluff but it was mainly focused on Sakura's parents' murder. If you didn't realise… The murderer was Sukai! Why does she have the sharingan? I'll give you a hint… She does work for Danzo after all…**

**-LucidClockwork**


	7. The Non-Existent Red Ribbon

**Welcome back! I'll update you on the votes:**

**Full Color- 5 votes**

**Memory Escape- 2 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 0 votes**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 2 votes**

**Remember, voting ends at chapter 11!**

**Now reviews!**

**Kri****-**_I'm guessing your name is Kirsty, Kristy, Chris or Kris… Somewhere along those lines… Anyways, I'm thinking that the kids will probably grow up until around chapter ten? I'm not sure though as I have not planned the story past chapter eight…_

**CherryblossomWarrior- **_Whoa… Massive rage text, rofl… You were actually pretty close with your guess. Yes, Danzo did in fact implant the sharingan in Sukai but it really makes you question, why? Why did he implant the sharingan into Sukai when he never did it to any of his ROOT ANBU? It makes you wonder how loyal Sukai is and how long she's been with him._

**Just a note,**

**This note is quite unnecessary so if you don't like a little character info then skip past this. Sukai is an OC I made so she can make another character seem more human. If you haven't guessed it already, the character is Itachi. Think about it, Sukai is the same age as Itachi and always seems to hang around him. She seems to act childishly but when she's serious she yearns for bloodlust. Not to mention she's also in ROOT ANBU and acts very loyal to Danzo. There won't be a lot of character development for Sukai but if anyone wants character development I'll be happy to give it to them. Little notes about Sukai's backstory will be given each chapter**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY **

* * *

The very next had been the first day of the academy, the warm radiance of the sun along with the bright smiles of the children created the closest thing to a paradise. Sakura payed no heed to laughs of joy and the warm sunlight on her skin. She was down in the dumps.

The rosette had to admit, she was handling the Haruno massacre a lot better than she had initially thought. She missed the mornings in which her oka-san would wake her up, shower her with love and make her a delicious breakfast. Sakura frowned, in her old life she had taken things like this for granted, yelling at her mother that pancakes were high in fat and sodium.

She sighed sadly and hugged her legs, drawing circles in the grass. She sat alone under the shade of the academy building, the blonde knucklehead nowhere in sight. He would help her through this, but… He wasn't here…

She missed her mother, her father… Her family…

Sakura choked a sob, her pupils dilated slightly. Was she acting too dramatically? After all, there had to be a price if she was going to prevent deaths. Her mind drifted to the previous day, Sasuke had comforted her in her time of need. There was hope that she could make him stay.

Sakura shook her head; she was old enough to know that the emotion she felt wasn't love… It felt more like a pity crush… Finally letting go of the one she had lov-liked… The most… She felt her heart constrict in chains, could she let go? Could she have the strength to see Sasuke with someone else? The rosette would force herself to be strong no matter what.

The familiar ringing of the academy bell sounded throughout the yards of the academy, every child rushed into the entrance of the academy. Sakura lifted herself slowly off the ground and dragged her feet to her designated classroom.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

In class Sakura sat next to the window, Iruka had a private talk with her at the start of the lesson, sympathising for her lost ones. Her face was blank, she didn't need his pity, what happened had happened.

She felt something warm next to her; she didn't have to look to know that it was Sasuke. The unique chakra signature and the colors of his clothing from the corner of her emerald pupil, it was all too familiar. Then another chakra signature, strong and overwhelming, she already knew it was Naruto.

"Hey loser! You took my seat next to Sakura-chan dattebayo!" Naruto yelled at the Uchiha.

Sasuke glared and shot her a quick glance.

"Look, she isn't in a good mood right now so leave her alone,"

Sakura would've been baffled if her parents weren't dead.

"What do you know about her huh?" A threat from Naruto.

"Just shut up and stop… Dobe," The raven-haired youth quickly added.

"What did you just call me?" Naruto growled.

The fight had gone on for long enough; the rosette turned her head from the window revealing her baggy bloodshot eyes. Naruto completely forgot about the fight with the other boy and a look of concern crossed over his face for his pink haired friend.

"Sakura-chan… Have you been crying?"

"It's okay, I just had a really bad nightmare last night," She forced a sad smile before turning around to face the window again, only just missing the blue hair that disappeared into the shadow of a tree.

Her thoughts drifted to Danzo and the Elders, how was she ever going to be able to poison them? She knew her way around the ROOT chambers, Sai had been her teammate. Her only worries were the ANBU that would be on duty there. Sure Sai had told her about the formations and layout of each guarding ROOT ANBU but he was talking about the formations that would happen ten years later in the future. Sakura could only hope that her small size, experience as a ninja and being able to conceal chakra would get her through to proceed to her plan.

"What is the purpose of flower arts Sakura?"

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts, staring nervously at the chunin at the front of the room. The rosette didn't know what the chunin was expecting for an answer, heck she didn't even know the question! All eyes were on her, she felt like melting from embarrassment. There was a minute of silence before the instructor spoke up.

"I'll excuse you this time because of your *_ahem_* family problems but I won't accept silence as an answer next time,"

Sakura melted into her seat; she blushed as her face changed to a bright pink. She had never been scolded in the academy before. Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances before looking back at the chunin instructor.

"Anyone else?" The instructor called.

The blonde girl in the row in front of her raised her head, Sakura recognised as her first friend. The one who made her the way she was and changed her from the shy and bullied girl she was. Sakura frowned.

_Ino…_

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Kunoichi classes were utterly useless to help kunoichi in battle. Sakura frowned as she fumbled to pick the right flowers cleanly off the stems instead of ripping off the bulbs. Her strength did her no favours.

"Sakura-chan, don't just rip off the flowers. They must be cleanly pulled off with no excess dirt. These flowers should at least be boutique worthy," The female chunin instructor knelt down and delicately pulled the flower from its roots and placed in her hand.

Sakura grumbled and resumed to rip the flowers out of the ground. Suzume-sensei sweatdropped and held Sakura's small palm.

"Try to grip the stems lightly; the pull shouldn't be as strong,"

_Why do girls even take these kunoichi classes? It's not like kunoichi can drown and kill shinobi with these stupid plants._

She immediately thought of Ino and no longer lingered on the topic. Sakura was quiet as she tried to have a light grip on another flower's stem. Her hand was covered in stem fluid after crushing it. Suzume flushed and shook her head.

"You know what? I'll just let one of your classmates help you,"

And the first person she picked had to be the bitch that bullied her in the academy. Sakura almost vomited in disgust as the girl flipped her plum-colored hair in the rosettes face in an attempt to impress her.

"Don't you smell that forehead-girl? The scent of vanilla shampoo," Ami smiled arrogantly before she harshly pulled a lock of Sakura's pink hair.

"What kind of ninja has pink hair?" She asked rudely.

"What kind of person has hair the same color as a bruise?" Sakura quietly remarked.

Ami's eyebrows scrunched up as a look of anger came upon her face. She tugged the rosette's lock harshly. Sakura winced as the roots of her hair were almost pulled from her scalp.

"Oh yeah!? Your hair smells like poo,"

Sakura laughed at the pathetic attempt at trying to insult her. Ami growled and pushed her over.

"You parents should disown you,"

The rosette was caught off guard and ceased her laughs. Her lips quivered and her eyes watered slightly.

_Damn it Sakura! She's seen your weakness and now she'll use it against you!_

Ami noticed her change in demeanour and cackled.

"In fact, you're so pathetic you made your parents die!" Ami laughed at her own joke.

The girl had no idea how much her words hurt. They were meant to hurt but what she had said hurt Sakura on a whole new level. Ami would never know how true she was. Sakura choked a sob and hugged her knees in a desperate attempt to hide her face. Her pink bangs had fallen in front of her forehead. The rosette came to the realisation on what had just happened.

She had changed back into the old girl she used to be. Always trying to hide her forehead and scrummaging under the insults of her classmates.

Suddenly, the cackles became muffled and Ami desperately tried to pry bits of a white flower off her tongue.

"That flower's poisonous y'know?" Ami let out a shrill scream before running off to telling Suzume about the flower.

Sakura looked up to see Ino smirking victoriously. The blonde took a seat next to her and brushed a strand of her hair away from her face.

"I heard about what Ami said to you and… I'm sorry about what happened to your parents,"

"How-"

"Otou-san told me," Ino waved her off.

"Aa,"

Sakura continued to childishly sulk into her knees before Ino briefly stood up and leant over her.

"So you've got a wide forehead and you hide it with your hair," The blonde muttered.

Sakura shook her head and pushed her bangs to the side.

"No, I don't hide my forehead. My forehead is a part of me and I like… me…" Sakura told her lamely.

Ino raised her eyebrows as Sakura's pink hair fell in front of her face again.

"Look billboard-brow," Sakura half frowned, half smiled at the nickname as vague memories filled her head.

"Here," Ino held out a red ribbon.

Sakura flashed her a bright smile before taking a hold of the ribbon, only for another memory to surface in her head.

**FLASHBACK**

_Two kunoichi stood in a field of beautiful flowers. The invisible hands of the wind brushed at each girls' long hair._

"_I'd like to give you this ribbon back pig,"_

_Ino tilted her head as Sakura held out a red ribbon._

"_The Konoha hitai-ate… Once we truly become shinobi we'll wrap our hitai-ate around our forehead._

_Sakura pushed the ribbon closer to Ino._

"_That means I don't need this anymore,"_

_Ino looked down at the ribbon, a flash of hurt flickered in her eyes before she smirked and took a hold of the ribbon._

"_That's a good idea,"_

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Sakura flinched and looked down at the ribbon; Ino tilted her head in confusion.

"What's wrong?"

Sakura shook her head and smiled. The rosette was glad she had gone back in time; she wanted experience moments like these again. She would finally set things right.

* * *

**That's all for this chapter. I know I'm like a week late for this chapter but my assholes of teachers have been giving me assignments non-stop. I apologize for the inconvenience and to give you a heads up, I won't be able to update every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday because school is just a butt like that.**

**WOOP REACHED FIFTY REVIEWS! IN YOUR FACE MY UGLY ENEMY!  
Thank you so much!**

**Anyways voting is still ongoing now ciao!**

**-LucidClockwork**


	8. Sai and the Elders

**I'm back! Yeah, yeah… I'll save three minutes of your life complaining on how this chapter was so slow to come out. I have been sick and unmotivated to write this chapter. I felt that it wasn't fair that readers have to read through crap I didn't even put effort into. School has also been a real bitch lately too… I was originally going to post this chapter earlier this week but there have been some connection errors in the local area. Don't worry, our council has already fixed the issue and the internet is up and running again. I'll update you on the votes:**

**Full Color- 6 votes**

**Memory Escape- 2 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 0 votes**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 2 votes**

**Remember, voting ends at chapter 11! Either PM me or write a review!**

**Now the reviews!**

**CherryblossomWarrior:**_The first few chapters just introduced Sakura and a few characters in. From now there will be a lot more moments in SasuSaku. NaruHina and ShikaIno will come a little later on. When I posted the chapter it was mid-afternoon I guess? You have a good day/night too…_

**Patrick the almighty observer: **_I must admit you are quite observant but I'm afraid you missed a crucial detail; Danzo did in fact give direct orders for Sukai. Danzo had already been suspicious of Sakura for a while and I'll just say that Sakura developing a poison confirms his suspicions. If you remember, a few chapters back Danzo stated…_

'_Your first ROOT mission; operation Haru-Gyakusatsu, do not hold back. Do anything to complete the mission,'_

_Haru-Gyakusatsu is very specific. These are the orders and he also said 'do anything to complete the mission,' Danzo didn't care how the mission was completed as long as it was completed. Do you see where I'm going with this?_

_As for why Sukai was following Sakura… You are forgetting that Sakura is in the body of a five-year old; Sukai couldn't possibly kill Sakura directly with arousing suspicion of why anyone would want to assassinate a civilian child so she made an example of her parents. She had even left a note in the hand of Mebuki warning Sakura to stop her plans of trying to poison someone._

_Sukai was simply making sure that Sakura didn't continue with her plans._

_Wow that was lengthy…_

**BizzyLizy**-_ Oh wow! Lucky! You must rich or something… My family can't even afford to fix our car. I totally wish that I could at least have a holiday home made of cabbages… Sorry that the update came a little slower than usual! I've been having a few personal issues at school and not to mention I'm sick! Thanks for reviewing and good luck to you too… I'll probably need it as much as I can get._

**Just a note,**

**Again this note is quite unnecessary so this can be skipped. This note is a bit of info about Itachi and Sukai's relationship. So you already know that Sukai is the same age as Itachi and hangs around him a lot. Clearly, Itachi doesn't mind her presence which brings me to my point. A similar relationship to Itachi and Sukai would be Neji and Tenten however; Sukai is a little more fangirl-ish. Sukai may seem annoying in some ways but Itachi sees her in another way. Say… I wonder how Itachi would react if he found out what Sukai did to Sakura's clan?...**

**Constructive criticism is recommended, if you are unsure about anything in the chapter just ask and I'll happily reply… Just don't be mean…**

**It has been terribly long since my last update so I've made this chapter extra long…**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

_One year, nine months until the Uchiha massacre…_

Sakura licked her lip and shakily poured the last of the poisonous herbs Ino had given her. Sakura wiped her brow and held up the bottle of bright blue liquid. The rosette grinned happily as the bright blue faded into a clear, transparent colour of water.

Over the year, Sakura decided that she would continue developing the poison in more secretive spaces such as Ino's room. The curtains were closed and the room was dark. A figure leaned forward in anticipation before accidentally falling off the chair she was sitting on and yelped. Sakura placed a kunai one her throat before the girl turned on the light revealing Sakura's blonde haired friend.

Sakura withdrew the kunai and smiled cheekily at Ino.

"What the hell were you doing forehead?" Ino demanded while rubbing her throat soothingly.

"Sorry pig, I didn't sense your chakra so I was surprised," At least the rosette hadn't thought to. She was too absorbed in the poison she was developing to even notice her friend's presence in the room. Sakura mentally groaned she had to be more careful.

"Why are you so tense anyways?" Ino grabbed the bottle out of her hand and opened up the lid, despite the rosette's protests.

"You were so tense over water? Geez forehead, you should have better things to worry about," Ino shrugged nonchalantly and chucked bottle back to Sakura who swiftly caught it.

"Pig, don't touch my stuff," Sakura punched Ino's arm playfully.

Since Sakura's parents had perished, the Yamanaka clan agreed to give the rosette a place to live to the joy of the heiress. Sakura was grateful and gained newfound respect stronger than the respect she had before in her old life.

Sakura shook the bottle slightly before opening and checking the poison was still intact. She let out a breath of relief and ripped open one of the flaps on her backpack. Carefully, the rosette placed down the bottle quietly. Ino tilted her head as a look of confusion came over her face.

"Hey… forehead,"

"Yeah?" The rosette hummed.

"I-"

"Get ready girls!" Inoichi's loud voice boomed and effectively silenced the blonde.

"I… Do you… Never mind," Ino looked downcast as her lips slightly trembled.

Sakura furrowed her brow but grabbed her bag and hoisted herself up.

"Race you there,"

The young Yamanaka flashed a smirk before pushing past the pinkette and racing her way to the academy.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Ino proudly boasted the whole way to the classroom. Sakura rolled her eyes for the fifth time since they'd made their way to the academy. Ino pushed the door open and let out a small squeal as she spotted the familiar hairstyle of the famous Uchiha

"Come on forehead! There are two spare seats next to Sasuke-kun!" Ino left the rosette's side and joined Sasuke near the back of the classroom. The blonde motioned Sakura to take the seat beside her.

Ino cuddled up against the Uchiha much to his disgust but she didn't seem to notice how uncomfortable he was. Sakura made her way up to join the two only to find her feet rooted to the ground.

'**They seem really happy… Don't they Sakura-chan?'**

Sakura jumped at the sudden voice and instinctively looked around her only to find the chakra signatures of some nearby chunin-instructors and the children in the room.

'**Silly duffer! I'm non-existent; I'm all just inside your head. Of course I have no chakra signature,'**

'_Inner… Sakura…?'_

The rosette hadn't heard the sound of her inner's in a while. When she was chunin, Tsunade-shishou had trained her to hone her inner self and lock it away inside her head. Tsunade had taught her that another soul could be a distraction in battle but could be used for other purposes such as strategizing. As time went on, Sakura had completely forgot about her inner that she had locked and slowly grew comfortable with the silence that echoed in her head. The rosette supposed that time travel had loosened the chains she had used to box and lock away her inner.

'**That's right Sakura-chan… I'm back, just look at the two lovebirds…'**

Sakura gazed up at the Yamanaka and Uchiha up in the higher stands. Ino gazed lovingly at the boy whilst Sasuke caught her gaze and looked pleadingly to her… Well as pleadingly as he could be.

She felt her heart pang against her chest. Her insides hurt and sadness welling at her eyelids.

'**Are you really going to let your attraction to Sasuke ruin your friendship with Ino again? Just let her have him, perhaps your feelings will fade over time…'**

There was so much wrong with her statement but Sakura couldn't bring herself to contradict what her inner had said. In her old life, her feelings for Sasuke had not simply faded away but had grown stronger even when he wasn't with them in Konoha.

'_I hate how much you're right,'_

Her inner didn't reply and locked herself away into the deeper parts of her mind. Sakura sighed and felt the numbness in her feet fade away. The rosette walked up the stairs and slowed down near Sasuke and Ino. Sasuke almost looked relieved as she weakened her knees to seat herself next to Ino.

'**So you plan to not change the future huh?"**

Sakura swerved around and took a seat in the next row, next to Naruto and Hinata.

"Forehead! I told you to sit next to me!" Ino whined.

"Y-You need some a-alone time with… S-Sasuke-k-"Sakura stopped herself.

"Don't you?" Sakura flashed a fake grin at Ino and turned around to talk to Naruto.

Ino shrugged her shoulders and snuggled closer to Sasuke. The Uchiha looked slightly downcast and looked away into a nearby window just before Sakura quickly turned her head and secretly gazed at him, lost in her thoughts about the future. She would never admit out loud that she was jealous, there was no point, Sakura would make sure that Ino and Sasuke got together no matter what she had to give up. It was time she gave back to the blonde.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

That night, Sakura headed back to the Yamanaka compound.

"Come in girls! Unpack your bags, do your homework then go to sleep!" Inoichi called across the yard.

Ino happily chatted away with Sakura until she fell into a peaceful and dreamless sleep. The rosette however just glanced out the window where ominous moonlight shun upon her. Sakura gripped the glass vial in her tightly.

_A few more minutes until midnight…_

The rosette was going to use all her chances to complete her mission. She was slowly growing impatient but the best choice was to sneak out into the darkness of night. Sakura quickly smirked as the moon passed directly over the Yamanaka compound.

_Perfect…_

Sakura quietly opened the window and slipped out while also making sure to carefully conceal her chakra. She shivered as the cold air brushed against her bare skin. With a second thought, Sakura quickly jumped back into the room and grabbed a small overcoat before closing the window. The rosette silently hopped from roof to roof in the direction of her target.

Occasionally, she turned her head to check that her parent's killer wasn't following her. Sakura bit her lip as she approached the roof of Danzo's residence. The rosette scanned her surroundings thoroughly before formulating a plan.

_-Eight ROOT ANBU guarding the front  
-Twelve more surrounding the premises  
-From what I presume, there will be more inside. Currently, I can sense about five but there could be some ANBU that have concealed their signature  
-Six ROOT ANBU in the courtyard  
-Sixteen others on patrol elsewhere_

The rosette frowned, she had not realised how guarded Danzo was. She had always presumed Danzo would have a lot of bodyguards afterall, he was an elder. Sakura had just never realised how important he was to have at least thirty guards.

Sakura unconsciously drew out the plan on the roof tiles of the building. First, she would throw paper bombs in areas clustered with guards but of course, a distance away so it lured the guards elsewhere. There were about twelve groups of clustered guards in the area, it would be hard.

Sakura let out a quiet sigh that didn't alert the guards. If her plan didn't work, she would be caught and her plan would fall apart. Danzo could easily get the poison extracted if he realised that he had been affected the spray. The rosette would have about twenty seconds to get in and out without anyone seeing her spray the poison.

Even then, she had to deal with the guards that were inside.

Without a second thought, Sakura scattered fifteen paper bombs and rushed into Danzo's room. The rosette gritted her teeth as she speeded through the courtyard while pushing her chakra into the soles of her feet. She burst into the room, feeling quite surprised as she was only greeted by one guard.

"Sai?!"

The boy quickly covered her mouth and pointed to Danzo.

"I cleared out the guards in here so that you could him. You've got about one minute before the guards get here, I've created another diversion for them. Just go and do your thing," Sai gave her the famous fake smile.

"H-How did you-" She stared at him dumbfounded before he cut her off.

"You're not the only one who was sent back ugly; I'll be joining you in a few years. I have a few mistakes I wish to redo,"

Sakura nodded and turned to Danzo without a second thought. The rosette knew Sai was talking about Shin.

"Come back, no matter what?" Sakura grabbed the older man's hands and carefully dripped the poison in the cuticles of his nails. Sakura gave one last look at her old friend before making her escape in a nearby window.

She heard the click of the window and a vague silhouette of Sai's small figure. Sakura hid behind a tree and calmed her breathing before listening in to the conversation.

"Did the intruder make it in here?"

She assumed the emotionless boy shook his head. The ROOT ANBU that sounded like he was in his 20s chuckled.

"You'll make a great man one day Sai,"

"Just promise me you won't ever leave me Shin,"

Sakura let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding and smiled. She knew that Sai was in good hands. The rosette knew that one day, she would meet him again. The circumstances were sure to turn out different but somehow, they would meet in a different way. With the ruffling of her cloak, the rosette left without a sound.

Her night wasn't over; she still had two more elders to kill.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

All elders were announced dead seven months after her killing spree. Once the poison entered the bloodstream, she had complete control over the victim's heartbeats and nerves. The rosette also had the ability to terminate the poison while it was in the bloodstream too. That way, there was no trace of her poison in their system. Sakura occasionally spiked their emotions and feels until she stopped their hearts. Their deaths seemed completely natural since they had visited the hospital, medics and assigned appointments from time to time.

No one suspected a thing about their deaths.

Danzo died one month after her eventful night, Koharu perished four months after and then Homura two months after that. It was assumed that Danzo died of old age, Koharu passed when she was unable to awake and Homura perished from the stress of being an elder by himself. Three new elders were chosen the next day.

_Fugaku Uchiha_

_Shikaku Nara_

_Hiashi Hyuga_

Sakura also noticed that the Uchiha seemed much more relaxed after the death of the elders. She smiled at the thought of the Uchiha clan having their glory restored to their clan. They no longer had any reason to resent the village therefore Itachi would have no reason to murder the clan and there was no one to give the order. Sakura really had changed the future.

Her day had been quite normal. Ino had been absent so she had gone to the academy alone, not that she minded. She was mentally much older than she seemed. Sakura hummed quietly as she skipped through the streets of Konoha until she was pulled into a nearby ally.

The ninja muffled her screams as their figure emerged from the shadows. She recognised the sky blue tresses that framed the girl's face. It was the girl that had always hung around Itachi. Her eyes showed betrayal and anger. Sakura's emerald orbs widened in horror as the girl pulled out a kunai. In her current state, there was no way she could break free of the kunoichi's grip without revealing her strength.

"You killed him didn't you?" She hissed.

"That poison! I killed your parents! I warned you… Now you've just caused your own demise," The tip of the kunai inched closer to her neck.

With unknown strength, Sakura pushed back the girl without hurting her and arousing suspicion. She resisted the urge to fight back and let her feet take her as far away from the girl as possible. Sakura heard the small breaths again and frantically threw kunai and shuriken at the girl in a desperate attempt to hold her up.

Sukai growled and tackled the girl into a tree, at that moment Sakura realised how far away she had run. The girl held up the silver kunai.

"I wish I didn't have to do this…" The sky-blue haired kunoichi mumbled.

She angled the kunai to point towards a pressure point on her neck. She bit her lip as a menacing smile overtook her features. Then, she tightened her grip on the kunai and struck.

* * *

**CLIFFHANGER! Longest chapter I've done in a while… Almost 3000 words, I guess it makes up for the long wait. I'll see you guys on the next chapter.**

**Kudos to readers, appreciate any reviews whether it is constructive, flames or positive reviews.**

**-LucidClockwork**


	9. The Sky Falls

**I'm back! No excuse this time, except for the fact that I'm still in school and tend to procrastinate like all teenagers. Anyways, I'll update you on the votes:**

**Full Color- 7 votes**

**Memory Escape- 4 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 1 vote**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 2 votes**

**Remember, voting ends at chapter 11! Either PM me or write a review!**

**Now reviews!**

**CherryblossomWarrior:** _Dukakis? Oh! You mean Sukai… Quite a lot of ranting but I can see that you're getting quite into the story. By the way, Sukai used her own kunai. I don't know if I made that clear or not but right now, Sukai doesn't really care if she's caught or not. Her master is dead and she's figured out that Sakura was the one who murdered him. Basically, she's an emotional wreck and yes she does belong in a mental hospital… *hint, hint* I'd also like to thank you for reviewing on almost all my chapters, revised or draft. Your reviews really make my day._

**animegeek27:**_ I hope you like the story so far, its reviews like this I'd love to get on every chapter I post._

**PrettyChelsea: **_I guess Sakura is just trying to improve the future, even if it meant sacrificing her parents. In return, she gets to save the Uchiha clan. Sai will most likely appear later on in the story; after all, he has some things to change including Shin's fate._

**BizzyLizy: **_Ugh, I totally wish that I at least had a holiday shed. My family isn't exactly poor but slightly handicapped in daily life stuff. I'd be happy if I had any type of crappy holiday home as long as I can get away from the day to day life I live. I'm sorry about this update being a little late; I hope you're enjoying the storyline so far._

**patrick the almighty observer: **_I didn't exactly specify why killing a civilian child would bring anymore attention than killing said child's parents but Sukai was ordered to kill Sakura as well. She however disobeyed the order because of her soft spot with children. Sukai honestly didn't think that Sakura would be much of a threat; she didn't think that Sakura would have the willpower to kill due to her young age. At first, Sukai was a mary-sue-ish character but I was originally going to turn her into a villain. When I revised this story I changed a few things around including some actions she performs to make her seem a little more evil. Thank you for taking the time to review and critique this. I really appreciate it._

**ForgetfulDaffodil: **_Thank you for reviewing and voting. The next update will be quite soon._

**If you have any problems with my writing, grammar, writing style or general understanding of the story. Don't be afraid to PM me or leave a review on how I could improve or help you understand.**

**Just a note,**

**This note has a bit of backstory on Sukai, it is unnecessary and may be skipped. Some of you might think it is strange how Itachi could feel comfortable around a person like Sukai, her fangirling and other annoying qualities. Currently, Sakura is six years old and I think that Itachi is what? Six years older? That would mean that Itachi is currently twelve years old, which means that he had already become ANBU. Sukai is the same age as Itachi but instead, she was in ROOT ANBU. What they have in common is that they are both prodigies so Itachi can relate to Sukai. However, Sukai was placed in ROOT ANBU working under Danzo while he was in ANBU Black Ops. The reason why Itachi even cares for her is because he thinks that Sukai is the only one that understands how he sees the world as a prodigy.**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

Sakura screamed in agony as the blade of the kunai pieced through her shoulder blade. A wicked smile overshadowed the older girl's features. Slowly, she pulled out the blade and watched closely as the rosette winced in pain. Sukai lifted the blade and licked the tip which was coated in a thin layer of her blood while still pinning her to the tree.

"I'll make you suffer feeling all the pain, Danzo went through,"

Sakura almost gagged as Sukai licked her lips as her wound bled. What kind of sick person was she? The rosette recognised the look of bloodlust in the blunette's chocolate eyes in Sasuke's. The younger girl's face twisted in pain.

Sukai smiled brightly at all the pain she was showing.

"You know what? Scrap the idea… I'm a nice person so I'll make this short and quick…" Sukai angled the kunai at her neck; Sakura closed her eyes and waited for agonising pain that would end her life… Again…

_I had this chance to fix everything… I guess this all I can do…_

The pain never came. Sakura felt the older being thrown off her body. The rosette coughed as air burst through her oesophagus and into her lungs. Her emerald orbs painfully opened to see another ANBU standing in front of her protectively.

"Itachi," Sukai hissed venomously.

Sakura saw his fist clench.

"Stop this now Sukai! You don't know what you're doing, Danzo's changed you!" He called out with a hint of emotion in his voice.

Sukai smiled and laughed dementedly as she slipped on her goat mask from the side of her face.

"You never knew me Itachi-kun… All you've ever done was talk to me about your problems… You never cared about the pain I had to go through,"

Sukai lunged at the boy at incredible speed. Itachi barely had time to dodge, all he saw was Sukai's hair waving gracefully before he rammed into a tree.

Sakura felt herself being lifted from her spot under her tree. Sakura blinked as Itachi carried her bridal style up in the higher branches of the trees.

"Stay here," It wasn't an order but rather a reassurance. Sakura nodded in understanding as he shunshin-ed away to fight Sukai.

The battle ended quickly with Sukai falling into the boy's arms limply. Sakura could tell he had hesitated on every hit he had landed on her. Soon enough, Itachi carried her down from the high branches of the tree and down onto the grass of the ground.

"Your wound healed quickly, I can hardly tell it's there," Itachi stated dumbfounded.

Sakura blinked before she glanced down at her shoulder blade. In the midst of the intense battle, the rosette supposed that she unconsciously unleased her medical chakra and healed her wounds. She grinned sheepishly while trying to lighten Itachi's mood.

Itachi stared sadly at the blue haired girl in his arms that slept peacefully.

"You really care about her… Don't you?" Sakura asked sadly.

"Sukai was the only person that ever understood the pain of being a prodigy to a prestigious clan. She had fallen into Danzo darkness… I wish that she took my spot in ANBU Black Ops while I took hers in ROOT ANBU. Then none of this would've ever happened,"

"I'll take to the interrogation chambers where they'll question her on her crimes," Itachi stood up and turned away to try and hide his sadness. Sakura gasped and covered her mouth. Itachi looked at her curiously.

"Y-Your eyes!"

His usual onyx eyes were brimming with tears and shining in the pattern of the sharingan.

"Aa… The mangekyō sharingan,"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The rosette insisted that she was fine. Sakura hadn't been too affected by the attack, she sure hadn't been expecting it but being a kunoichi in her old life, and she had seen and experienced situations much worse than the one involving Danzo. Itachi however had his mind set on her safety, not that she needed it.

"But she's gone now! I can handle myself just fin-"Sakura protested.

"As a Konoha shinobi, I swore an oath to serve and protect Konoha. Including its citizens," A look of amusement gleamed in the Uchiha's dark onyx eyes as Sakura crossed her arms and glared at him childishly.

It only felt like a few minutes before they had arrived at the Uchiha compound. Realisation glazed her expression as she turned and glared at Itachi.

"You told me Yamanaka-sama would pick me up!"

"He's busy interrogating Sukai," Itachi shook his head as if he was trying to clear his thoughts of the blue-haired ANBU, "If you think I'm just going to let you off unsupervised after an attack like that, you are completely clueless,"

Sakura huffed and turned away before slowly following him into the mansion, the rosette knew that the Uchiha had made up his mind.

"Sakura?" The rosette looked up as Sasuke over her.

"Nii-san? Why has she got cuts and scrape all over her?"

Sakura quickly covered her exposed arm and pulled her sleeve lower to cover her wounds. Itachi however was unfazed and poked Sasuke gently in the centre of his forehead. Sasuke rubbed his forehead and frowned while not taking his eyes of Sakura's arm.

"Let's just say Sakura-chan got into a little trouble. Nothing too bad," Itachi seemed to reassure himself as well as his brother.

"Aa… Will you be at the academy Sakura?" The younger Uchiha asked curiously.

The rosette opened her mouth to speak only to be cut off.

"Absolutely not! Not after what happened today," Itachi cleared his throat before awkwardly walking away and into a nearby room. He closed the door behind him and left the two six-year olds to the conversation.

Sasuke looked over her cuts and forcefully pulled her sleeve down, exposing the bruises and cuts that Sukai had inflicted on her. Sasuke's hand trailed up to her shoulder blade where a small scar remained in the place of her stab wound.

"W-Who did this?" Sasuke asked quietly.

"I tripped over!" Sakura blurted out the first excuse that came to find. Sasuke didn't replay and released his grip on her elbow.

"Sakura-chan…" Sakura stiffened at the honorific.

"I'm here for you, so is the dobe and the other blonde," The rosette knew that he was referring to Ino.

"If there's anything you ever need us know, I'll be listening," Sakura stilled and gazed into the younger Uchiha's obsidian orbs. Sasuke had said 'I', the simple thought that Sasuke had cared brought tears to her eyes.

Emerald eyes tore away from obsidian and found their attention on the greenery outside. Shakily, Sakura raised her hand over heart, feeling the erratic, violent heartbeats smashing against her chest. The rosette flushed as heat dusted her cheeks.

She was falling Sasuke Uchiha again, suddenly, Sakura didn't know if she could follow through with her plan of getting Ino and Sasuke together.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Naruto just kept asking where you were the whole day! Sometimes I just wonder why the hokage even let him in the academy," Sakura narrowed her eyes at the ground and glanced over to Ino.

"Naruto isn't that annoying, he's just lonely. He doesn't like it when people-" The rosette protested.

"Yeah… Yeah, forehead. I'm different, I don't hate him. He can just be loud and obnoxious," Ino waved her off.

For a moment Sakura wanted to ask how the blonde knew such a word at such a young age but decided to drop the topic. The duo fell into an awkward silence with the exception of the gravel road crackling under their ninja sandals. The rosette thought back to the events from earlier today, the ROOT ANBU attacking her and Itachi's friendship with her.

In her old life, Sakura had never met anyone with bright blue hair working for Danzo. No one had ever mentioned the blunette. The rosette clenched her fist as sudden realisation hit her. Sukai would have been a useful source of information on Danzo. If Tsunade-shishou had Sukai interrogated in her old life Sasuke might not have had to betray the village at all.

"You alright Sakura? Your hand's purple," Sakura shook her head and attempted to clear her thoughts before shooting a sheepish grin at Ino.

"I'm fine, everything's fine,"

Ino narrowed her eyes and looked away.

"If you say so billboard-brow," The blonde mumbled.

Once again, they fell into silence. Sakura gazed at each pebble she stepped on as Ino's footsteps slowly drifted into simultaneous beats with hers.

"Why are you so quiet dammit?" Ino cussed.

Sakura snapped her head up in surprise. The blonde had stopped walking and just gazed at her. The rosette saw hint of anger in her pale baby blue eyes. Ino took a step forward and jabbed Sakura in the chest. The pinkette stumbled backwards slightly not from pain but rather the force of the girl's jab.

"You're not usually like this! Tell me what's wrong!" Ino glared at Sakura.

"I'm f-"

"Don't give me that crap! I'm not stupid Sakura, what are you not telling me?"

The rosette gazed around her. The street was near deserted with the exception of a stall keeper closing up shop. All her problems flashed before her eyes. The attack that'd happened earlier today, the fact that she was slowly falling for Sasuke again. Sakura saw her parents' bodies mangled in their own limbs.

"You wouldn't understand!" Sakura shouted.

"Try me," Ino leaned closer as her lips widened into a smirk.

"I like Sasuke-kun," Ino's mouth fell into a frown as she straightened up.

"Is that all you're worked up about forehead?"

Sakura gazed at her flabbergasted.

"You mean… You don't hate me?" The rosette asked timidly.

Ino let out a hearty laugh before wrapping her arm around Sakura's shoulder.

"Do you think I'll let a boy ruin our friendship so easily? I'll race you back!" The small blonde took off and quickly turned a corner. Sakura stared at her back before gathering her thoughts once again. She felt her heart pang for the second time today.

Ino's interaction with her clarified details of her old life she hadn't realised before.

It was her fault that their friendship had ended. Ino hadn't cared about Sasuke enough to end their friendship over him. She however had. The simple thought hurt her more than the overall critique of her previous life.

Sakura clenched her fist and looked up into the sky. The rosette was glad that kami decided that she would be the one to influence the future.

* * *

**Yeah I know, it's been a month since my last update. I've been extremely busy not to mention that I'm currently experiencing those cliché high school dramas right now. I promise the next chapter will be uploaded a lot quicker. On the bright side, the next chapter is when everyone becomes a genin. Hooray! I'm finally done with all this crap. Also… I'm just going to say that only three people returned to the past; Sakura, Sai and somebody else. However, this other character will probably come into the story at a much later time.**


	10. The Golden Kunai

**As promised, this is the ninth chapter of 'Memory Escape'. Remember there are only two more chapters before voting stops.**

**Full Color- 7 votes**

**Memory Escape- 5 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 1 vote**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 2 votes**

**Remember, voting ends at chapter 11! Either PM me or write a review!**

**Now reviews!**

**CherryblossomWarrior:**_ I haven't actually watched Acchi Kocchi but after this review I went and searched it up. Thank you for making me fall in love with another anime. Thank you for enjoying it so far, this chapter is going to be a little different. Everyone is now twelve/thirteen and are officially genin. A bit of a time skip… Six years… Anyways, I'm glad you took the time to review_

***Guest*: **_Well uh… Thanks for voicing your opinion, I guess I hadn't really specified the exact reason, that's now been fixed. Sukai had been following Sakura around, there are off screen/story moments that I hadn't written that keeps adding to Sukai's suspicion of her. Danzo would rather massacre her family than to manipulate her, her knowledge of poison and maturity would be risking his organisation. However, he did not specifically suspect Sakura would poison him it could be counted as a coincidence._

**ForgetfulDaffodil: **_Thanks for reviewing; I'm glad that you found this fanfic again. Memory Escape may soon change name, hopefully you'll find this fic again if that does happen!_

***Guest*: **_Aww… I don't usually write Sasuke being too OOC but he's only six. Moments like these only come once in a lifetime (LOL)._

**BizzyLizy: **_Sorry for the last update being a little slow. Its school holidays whoop! It means a few chapters will come out faster than they usually do. Thanks for reviewing _ ◕ ◡ ◕

**If you have any problems with my writing, grammar, writing style or general understanding of the story, don't be afraid to PM me or leave a review on how I could improve or help you understand.**

**Just a note,**

**Sukai for now is out of the picture, she will appear in the story quite some time later but she will not be mentioned for the time being. Itachi will not appear as often, I'm changing my view of the story because of the huge time skip (six years). The story will now focus a lot more on Team 7 and more major problems of the future eg. Orochimaru, Zabuza, Haku…**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

Sakura began her day standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and rippling nausea and the pit of her stomach. The rosette shuffled backwards, her back struck a hard invisible barrier. She slid along until she hit the corner of perpendicular invisible barriers.

Sinking to the floor of the darkness, she pulled her legs up tight against her body hoping her eyes would soon adjust to the darkness. A loud blare of some kind of alarm jolted her to her feet. Soon enough, her eyes caught a vague shape of some kind of lizard. The rosette leaned forward and reached forward, as her hand was about to make contact with the creature, everything evaporated into the familiar lighting and form of Ino's bedroom.

The room was still shadowed by the darkness of early morning. Sakura supposed that it was no later than five. The rosette clenched the thin sheets that protected her skin from the frigid air. She had experienced the recurring dream every night since her birthday, almost a whole two months ago.

Sakura shifted her body so she caught sight of Ino's sleeping form on another nearby bed. There was still a whole four hours before she was needed at the academy and what better way to use her time to train?

Making sure to not wake up the dozing blonde, Sakura exhaled a deep breath and lightly placed her foot onto the carpeted floor. The rosette changed into her sleeveless qipao training kimono and quietly adjusted the Konoha hitai-ate neatly behind her bangs.

She stared at herself through the mirror, young and unharmed by the dangers of the world. Sakura would keep her previous appearance as a symbol to what she aspired to change.

Briskly twirling her short pink locks, Sakura attached her kunai pouch before slowly closing the door while leaving the resting Yamanaka undisturbed.  
"Sakura! What are you doing up so early?" Sakura jumped and spun around to see Inoichi grinning her.

"I woke up a bit early, might as well use this time to train," Sakura said, her arms reaching down to kunai pouch to adjust its position.

"You'll be a committed ninja, no doubt,"

Inoichi reached into his own kunai pouch and pulled out a golden kunai with unfamiliar names engraved on the ring.

"Your parents left this for inheritance when you become a genin,"

Sakura carefully took the kunai from the older man and brushed her finger over the words before looking up at him.

"The Nakato clan? This was oka-san's clan before she married my otou-san. I didn't know that they were a ninja clan," The rosette mumbled.

"I don't really know anything about this clan. Your mother came from Kirigakure; perhaps there will be more information on some parchments or scrolls?" The Yamanaka suggested.

Sakura nodded and slipped the kunai into her pouch with caution. Sakura stood there for a full minute, staring at the man casually walking off into another room leading away from the corridor. Gradually, a bright smile made its way on the widening of her lips.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Three whole hours had passed when Sakura finished up her training and cleaned up the training fields. It took a long time for Sakura to find her way back to the road to the academy. Normally, the rosette made a habit to use training ground seven but it seemed to be occupied by a couple of chunins scorching the greenery until all that was left was ash.

The rosette had been bewildered that a mere chunin had enough chakra to make a simple katon-no-jutsu strong enough to abolish the training grounds in a fifty metre radius. Sakura gaped as the chunin turned back at her and smirked. It occurred that male had sensed her and attempted to impress her with the jutsu.

"Show-off," She muttered before she walked off into the direction of another training ground.

It was her luck that the only training ground available was the most distant from the village. It had taken Sakura twenty minutes to run there. The rosette hadn't even reached the training ground before she was out of breath.

The rosette made sure to practice her medical ninjutsu, chakra manipulation and chakra control. Unfortunately she had come alone so she was unable to practice her taijutsu properly. Sakura leant against the base of a tree while taking in big breaths, attempting to meditate. Soon enough, the golden kunai that Inoichi had given pulsed with chakra; Sakura examined it with awe as she stabbed the tree. Bark around the tree evaporated into water at her feet.

The rosette wasn't sure what kind of clan the Nakano clan and the practices they performed but the power the golden kunai held couldn't fall into the wrong hands.

Sakura stilled as the whole of the kunai evaporated into water. The rosette shuffled backwards as the water dripped from her hand and dripped to the floor, slowly forming the lizard that appeared in her dreams. The pinkette inched forward only to jump back as the lizard quickly melted back into the golden kunai.

Sakura picked up the kunai and inspected it. The brilliant golden color dimmed as she held the kunai once again. The words carved on the ring of the kunai were slowly changing back as if the words had never been carved. The rosette frowned and slipped it into her kunai pouch.

The rosette wasn't sure what was happening but she had no idea how to use the clan treasure, perhaps it was best not to use it for now.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Forehead!"

Sakura turned to look at Ino; pushing past as many people as she could. The blonde unconsciously halted in disgust, noting the rosette's grimy training dress that clung to her like a second skin. Sakura's bags stuck to her face as sweat trickled down the side of her face.

"No! You cannot be assigned to a team looking and smelling like this!"

The rosette tilted her head as the blonde ushered her back into her flower shop, demanding that she showered and changed.

"We'll be late thou-"Sakura protested.

"I don't care; I am not letting you turn up to the academy looking homeless!"

The rosette felt the end of her lips slowly lifted into a small smile, back in her old life the blonde couldn't have cared less about her hygiene or looks. The Yamanaka was still angry at her for ending their friendship abruptly and over a boy.

"You can leave Ino-pig; I don't want you to be late because of me,"

"It doesn't matter if I'm late; I already know my team,"

Sakura stilled and pivoted on her right sandal, another sleeveless training dress dropped to the ground.

"How? Did hokage-sama-"

Ino snorted and picked up the crimson dress before placing it back into Sakura's arms.

"I'm not that stupid Sakura, I know about my clan requirements. It's a clan tradition for the Yamanaka clan hair to be in the same genin team as the Nara and Akimichi heirs. I'll be in the same team Shikamaru and Choji,"

Sakura silently breathed in a sigh of relief, the rosette had though Ino had somehow acquired her knowledge. She made a note to place a seal on her memories so that Ino couldn't access the future with her Mind Body techniques.

"Hurry up Sakura, I said its okay for me to be late but that doesn't mean that you should be late!" The blonde yelled, snapping the rosette from her thoughts.

Sakura shuddered as a small devilish smirk and an evil aura radiated from the blonde's chakra before quickly heading off to the ensuite.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The rosette arrived at the academy alone; Ino had gone off to the roof of the academy to meet up with her teammates and sensei while she was left to find her teammates.

_Knowing Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke and Naruto are probably still waiting in the classroom._

**How would you know huh? Kakashi-sensei could be early for once!**

Sakura frowned before replying.

_Stop looking through my memories; I might seal you up as well if that keeps happening._

Inner Sakura didn't reply, the rosette felt her inner's presence fade away until her mind was quiet once again.

_Inner?_

Unconsciously, Sakura slammed open the classroom door to be met with an eraser falling on her head, covering her from head to toe in chalk dust and glitter. Sakura coughed and fell back in surprise. Naruto certainly hadn't added glitter to the prank last time.

"Ah! Sakura-chan! I'm sorry I didn't-"

Naruto cowered as he hid behind Sasuke who smirked as she glared at the boy behind him. Suddenly, Sakura burst out genuinely laughing. The rosette screeched as she flailed and held her stomach. The rosette couldn't remember the last time she let out such a gut-wrenching laugh.

Sakura wiped a tear and stood up, her laughs soon died down to small hiccupping giggles. The two boys just stared at her, Sasuke raised an eyebrow as she leaned over a table to try and stop another round of giggles and laughs.

"That was meant for our new sensei, but you were late too so… You deserve it?" The blonde scratched his head.

"I still don't get what's so funny," The Uchiha spoke up.

Sakura opened her mouth to reply only for another round of giggles to erupt from her throat. The rosette blushed as the two boys looked down once again at her.

"Aw… I just showered, Naruto you owe me," Sakura punched the blonde's arm playfully.

"I'll pay for you next time we go to Ichiraku," The knucklehead mumbled.

"It's a date,"

Sakura gazed over to Sasuke who had moved away during the exchange between her and the blonde. The Uchiha gazed out the window; Sakura could only wonder what he was thinking about. She had stopped the Uchiha massacre so he couldn't have been plotting revenge on Itachi.

Sasuke caught her gaze and stared at her questionably; the rosette turned away and started a small conversation with Naruto. Sakura ignored the glitter and chalk dust that clung onto her clothing and skin. She was sure that she would get a rash; luckily she was a medical ninja. A rash wouldn't be too hard to heal.

"Oh Sakura-chan? Would you happen to have some glitter I could use? You kinda ruined my prank for my new jounin sensei,"

Sakura shook her head before picking up the eraser that had bounced off her head within the previous few minutes, "There's still a bit of glitter on the duster, it won't be as much as the amount of glitter that fell on me..."

Naruto grinned, "It's fine Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke looked over to the blonde, "How are you so sure he'll fall for the prank? He's a jounin,"

"Just watch Sasuke-kun!" The rosette grinned playfully.

Kakashi arrived hours later than he had in her old life. However, the rosette and the blonde had seen the man's silhouette behind the door moments befre entering.

"YOU'RE LATE!" She yelled alongside Naruto.

Everything happened in slow motion, the door slid open. Naruto and Sakura watched in glee as the duster bounced off his head, landing a few meters over to left with a small _thump._

"My first impr-"Kakashi glanced over to her.

"Sakura-chan! Congratulations on becoming a genin, I have no doubt that you'll grow stronger under my wing," Sakura gaped before she shook her head.

"D-Don't stray off topic Kakashi-sensei! Aren't you going to tell us your first impression?"

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other in confusion before turning their attention back to the silver-haired man.

"How do you know Sakura-chan?" The blonde asked, he slightly moved in front of the rosette, spreading his palms out as if to protect her.

"I only interacted with him once and he still remembers me," Sakura mumbled.

The jounin's mask creased as his eye crinkled like he was giving them a crooked smile. He dusted some of the glitter and chalk off his clothing before leaning over towards his genin.

"Of course I would remember my favorite little genin,"

"Favorite?" Sasuke had also taken a step forward, his posture ready to lash out if the older man made any sudden movements.

"I talked to him seven or six years ago when I passed out in front of a memorial stone," By then, Sakura's face was almost as bright as her clothes.

Naruto snapped, almost lunging at Kakashi before Sasuke held the blonde back by the collar.

"Now, now. No need to get too violent, we are indoors after all," Kakashi placed a hand under his chin and looked thoughtfully at the three, "My first impression of this group… You're all a bunch of idiots… except for Sakura-chan of course,"

All three genin faceplanted.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Alright why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time?"

"Introduce ourselves? Well what are we supposed to say?" Sasuke pointed.

Kakashi shrugged, "Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies, things like that…" The silver haired man crossed his arms again.

"Why don't you tell us about you first? I mean before we talk, tell us about you so we can see how it's supposed to work," The blonde scratched his head.

"Me?" Kakashi pointed at himself, "I'm Hatake Kakashi, things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that…"

"Huh?"

"My dreams for the future, never really thought about it. As for my hobbies…" Kakashi looked into the sky before continuing, "I have lots of hobbies,"

The three genin may or may not have faceplanted once again.

"That was totally useless, all he really told us was his name," The rosette mumbled.

Sakura hugged her legs against her chest, in this life she had at least interacted with him once. The rosette supposed that she had expected the man to be a little more open this time around.

"Okay… Your turn, you on the right. You first,"

Naruto grinned as he opened his mouth to speak while also playing with his hitai-ate.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo! I like instant ramen in a cup and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku ramen shop,"

Sakura smiled at his childishness.

"But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the ramen in the ramen cup," By then Kakashi had leaned forward in boredom as Naruto continued, "My hobbies are eating different types of ramen and comparing them,"

"And my future is to be the greatest hokage dattebayo! Then the whole village will start respecting me and treating me like I'm somebody! Somebody important dattebayo!"

Kakashi's lone eye slightly widened before mumbling some words to himself.

"Alright, next,"

"I'm Haruno Sakura! I like my friendship with Naruto, Ino-pig and Sasuke. I dislike when people call Ino a spoilt brat, Naruto a monster and Sasuke a devil child of the cursed clan. My hobbies are training my medical ninjutsu and reading the scrolls in the library,"

Kakashi's onyx eye widened.

"You know medical ninjutsu?"

Sakura smiled sheepishly, "I only know how to heal cuts and scrapes but I want to get better,"

It was half true, the rosette could remove poison, heal fractures and a few other things but travelling back to the past had degraded her skill level and chakra reserves. The older man seemed to accept the answer.

"My dream for the future is to learn from my mistakes and create a better future for everyone!" Sakura grinned as she lifted her arms over her knees.

Kakashi sweatdropped, the dream seemed a little unattainable.

"Don't you think that dream's a little challenging? After all, nobody knows what will happen in the future,"

Sakura frowned.

_Only if you knew Kakashi-sensei… Only if you knew…_

"Last one,"

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," The boy's words were muffled as he hands were over his mouth; fingers entwined with another finger.

"I hate a lot of things, the fact that my brother is almost never there for me, my father only sees my brother as his son," Sasuke paused.

"And I don't particularly like things except my friendship Sakura and rivalry with Naruto,"

"My dream is to grow strong, surpass my brother and gain my father's respect,"

The conversation fell into an awkward silence before a loud shout broke through.

"YOU'LL NEVER BE STRONGER THAN ME DATTEBAYO!"

"Shut up dobe, if you wanna be strong, go ahead. I couldn't care less about you,"

"STOP TRYING TO ACT COOL TEME!"

Kakashi sighed before shaking his head.

"Good, you're each unique and you have your own ideas," Kakashi turned his head to Naruto, "We'll have our first mission tomorrow,"

"What kinda mission are we gonna have dattebayo?" Naruto's grin widened.

"It's a task the four of us will do together,"

_Damn… I totally forgot about the survival exercise…_

"A survival exercise,"

**... I called it.**

"Huh? A survival exercise?" Naruto asked, a frown showed his disappointment.

"We already did this stuff in the academy, that's how we got here," Sasuke pointed out. Sakura could hear the steady frustration that slightly showed in his voice.

"This is not like your previous training,"

"So uhh… What kind of training is it then?"

Kakashi chuckled as he cleared his throat.

"If I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it," Kakashi straightened up his hitai-ate over his eye.

"Out of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will be accepted as genin. The other eighteen graded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass or fail test," Sakura saw the slight smirk forming under the jounin's mask, "When the chance that you'll fail is at least sixty-six percent,"

Naruto faceplanted, even Sasuke had a drop in posture from surprise. Sakura quickly schooled a face of shock.

"See… Didn't I tell you wouldn't like it?"

* * *

**Well, this is probably the longest chapter I've had so far. Next chapter will come out very soon. Team 7 is going through survival training again! Yay! The introductions were a little boring, I know but it had to be written, just like how I had to be born.**

**-LucidClockwork**


	11. Twinkling Bells

**I apologise if my writing is a little scrappy in this chapter, I'm writing this on my iPad with the new iOS 9 update.**

**Full Color- 7 votes**

**Memory Escape- 6 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 2 votes**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 2 votes**

**Remember voting ends ****next chapter!**** Either PM me or write a review!**

**Now reviews!**

**ForgetfulDaffodil:**_Thank you for revisiting this story once again! Since 'Memory Escape' has gotten to this stage of the story I can almost guarantee that he'll be in every chapter after this one._

**If you have any problems with my writing, grammar or general understanding of the story, don't be afraid to PM me or leave a review on how I could improve or help you understand.**

**Just a note,**

**Team 7 are now in the stage of the bell test, of course will be some differences from what actually happened in the bell test since Sakura is more mature, the Uchiha massacre hadn't happened and Naruto wasn't completely alone. He had Sakura as a friend and Sasuke as a rival yet a friend.n Sakura won't be as boy crazy, Sasuke can be a little more open but he's Sasuke. I can't make him too OOC. Naruto won't as obnoxious and loud, even turning to Sakura for some help.**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

Surprisingly, Ino had gotten up earlier than the rosette that morning. Sakura groaned as the blonde threw a blanket over her head.

"What's the big deal pig?" The pinkette mumbled groggily.

Sakura smacked her lips together in an attempt to rid them of the dryness that occurred overnight. As the hokage's pupil, Sakura had gotten used to the early risings. The rosette quite enjoyed the times when she would halt her training for a few minutes to watch dawn rise. Going back to an earlier point in her life, Sakura had slacked off and slept in, taking advantage of the fact that her shishou wasn't berating her on the importance of early rising.

"Hurry up Sakura, I need to get up early for my qualifying test and as a girl I am not going on the streets alone at this time of the day," Ino scolded.

Sakura threw her head back and moaned into the soft pillow while slipping her left hand under the pillow.

"Five more minutes... I hardly had any sleep last night,"

Ino frowned before snatching away the pillow and hugging it to her chest, letting the rosette's head fall to the springy but comfortable mattress. The girl moaned in irritation, weakly reaching out to retrieve the stolen pillow.

"Did you get that one with the lizard again?"

Sakura slowly hoisted herself up and rubbed her eyes. Blinking, the rosette sighed and grabbed the pillow, effectively surprising the blonde and successfully releasing the captured pillow in distress from the blonde witch.

"It's weird Ino, Yamanaka-san gave me one of my kaa-san's clan weapons. I trained with it a bit yesterday and that weird lizard appeared except I could actually see it, not just its figure and... It was made of water,"

The blonde looked down at the sheets thoughtfully.

"When I was younger, Shikamaru told me about a clan he had read about in one of the scrolls in the Nara clan library. He said that most members had died during the third shinobi war as proud Kiri shinobi. The few members that survived scattered across the land. Disguising as civilians. He told me that since no one had thought anyone from the clan survived, the clan name was soon forgotten," Ino scrunched up her nose before continuing, "Most of their techniques consisted of sealing summons made of elemental chakra into regular ninja weapons and calling upon their powers during battles and such,"

Ino shrugged.

"That's all I know, if you want to about anything else you should probably ask Shikamaru for that scroll,"

Sakura nodded before realisation hit her.

"I FORGOT ABOUT THE BELL TEST!"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"You told me that your sensei wouldn't be here until the afternoon, it's only eight in the morning. Now you're making me carry all these bentos," The blonde grumbled as she adjusted her arm to stop the third bento from falling.

Sakura smiled sheepishly.

"Don't you want to see Sasuke?"

That shut up the blonde quickly.

"But don't you like Sas-"

"Sasuke! Naruto!" The rosette called, she waved vigorously to make sure the boys saw her.

Ino turned away and blushed furiously as the blonde and her crush walked over.

"You're late again!" Naruto accused.

"I slept in, gomen'nasai," Sakura bowed respectfully.

"What's Yamanaka doing here? Why do you have bentos? Kakashi specifically told us not to have breakfast,"

Both girls frowned, each for different reasons.

"Sasuke, it's disrespectful to call an elder without an honorific," The rosette pointed.

"Just answer the question," The Uchiha stuffed his hands into his pockets, his shoulders slightly lifted and fell from a shrug.

"I asked Ino to help me carry the breakfast I made last night before I went to sleep and Kakashi-sensei told us that the survival exercise would be so hard that we'd throw up if we ate. If it was so hard, we'd probably be better off eating and being filled with energy,"

Sasuke's brow furrowed but he seemed to accept the answer and took the top bento from the stack Ino was carrying. The blonde flushed as he touched her hand. Sakura took the next two bentos and handed one to Naruto.

"Arigatou Ino, min'na itadakimasu!" Sakura chirped.

Ino may or may not have run off fangirling over the Uchiha touching her hand.

Kakashi arrived hours later with three innocent faces and three bento boxes henged into twigs behind a tree. The silver haired man decided not to comment.

"Hi fellows. Good morning,"

"YOU'RE LATE!"

"A black crossed my path, so-" Kakashi gestured to his left.

The three of them grumbled while smirking to each other at the same time. This didn't go unnoticed by the jounin who simply just raised his eyebrow. The silver-haired man cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Let's move on..."

He pulled out an alarm clock from who knows where and placed it on a convenient tree stump.

"Alarm set at 12 PM," He clicked the top of the clock. Sakura almost instantly jumped but restrained herself. The silver-haired jounin pulled out two bells, one bell knocked against another. A harmonic twinkling sound filled the rosette's ears.

"Today's topics is to get one of these bells from me," The serene bells sounded once again, "Whoever can't will have no lunch,"

The genin smirked among themselves. Kakashi furrowed his brow before continuing.

"I'm going to tie you there, and eat lunch in front of you,"

Kakashi wasn't pleased to only here the quiet chirping of birds to say the least.

"Wait... Why are there only two bells?" The Uchiha asked.

"Since there's only two, at least one will have to be tied to the log. That person will fail sinc he failed to complete the mission, the person will go back to the academy," Kakashi crookedly eye-smiled.

"It might be just one, or all three then," Sakura pointed.

Of course she had already figured out her plan to get Team 7 to pass the test. After all, Team 7 had no chance of failing. Even if she had no imput in the plan.

Kakashi nodded and held up the bells, "You're already my favorite student,"

Kakashi smiled again as everyone sweatdropped.

"You can use your shuriken, you won't be able to get this unless you have the will to kill me,"

"That's too dangerous! You couldn't even dodge that chalk eraser!" Naruto grinned, he nonchalantly crossed his arms behind his head. Sakura slapped his elbow and glared at the blonde lightly.

"Don't say that Naruto! Treat your elders with respect and for all you know, he deliberately done that!" Sakura scolded.

"Aww... Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined.

Kakashi smiled again during their small exchange.

_Aa... So Sakura-chan's already getting the concept of this exercise_

"We're going to start after I say 'Ready, start',"

This time around, Kakashi had given Naruto no reason to lunge at him. Perhaps it could be easier to get through to Naruto with her plan if he wasn't going to be as boastful as last time.

"Ready... Start!"

The three genin disappeared, Sakura was thankful that Naruto had actually decided to hide this time around.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The rosette appeared next to Sasuke, before the Uchiha could protest she quickly slapped her hand over his mouth.

"Listen Sasuke, I'm only going to say this once," The rosette lifted her hand off the boy's mouth, "Kakashi-sensei wants to test us to see if we can work well as a team,"

Sasuke shook his head, "I'm not going to work with you to get the bells,"

Sakura felt her spirit being crushed slowly and painfully, "W-why not?"

"There's only two bells, you're probably just going to use me to get the bells, take one and give the other to the dobe,"

Sakura suddenly found herself getting angry, the rosette mustered the most hateful glare at the Uchiha. The boy flinched, almost falling off the branch they were sitting on.

"Do you really think I'm that shallow you bastard?" Sasuke shook his head furiously, leaning as far back as he could against the tree trunk.

Sakura smiled happily as if boy had never mentioned his thoughts.

"Good! Now I'll go get Naruto, you stay here and make a plan,"

Stealthily, Sakura hopped off the branch and into the shrubs and bushes without a sound. Sasuke watched as Sakura leaped out, her head constantly checking her surroundings to see if Kakashi was anywhere nearby before throwing a shuriken into a direction.

The Uchiha leaned forward, slightly irritated that the tree canopy was covering his view. Seconds later, the boy's eardrums were filled with excruciating pain,.

"YOU COULD'VE TOLD ME BEFORE YOU THREW THAT SHURIKEN SAKURA-CHAN!"

The rosette below him just looked up at him and grinned. Unconsciously, the corners of the raven-haired genin lifted into a small smile as his heart slightly defrosted.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

The silver-haired jounin knew something was wrong the moment Sakura had come up to him asking to quit the survival exercise. His hands lifted into the proper hand sign as he spoke under his breath.

"Kai," The image of the rosette swirled and flickered.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had appeared out of nowhere and started attacking him. Their moves were uncoordinated and seemed random. Occasionally, Sasuke's jutsu would dispel half of Naruto's shadow clones often causing the jutsu to not hit at all.

_Genjutsu... Only Sakura has the ability to cast genjutsu, Naruto and Sasuke were physical attackers often relying on taijutsu or ninjutsu._

Kakashi jumped back, furthering the distance between him and the two boys. The the rosette had jumped in, the jounin hadn't been expecting her at all. The kunoichi had obviously been masking her chakra which the silver-haired jounin only grow more wary of her rather than the two boys further away.

The girl clawed at the bells only to miss and grab his precious orange literature. Kakashi watched in horror as the book fell to the ground, its pages forcefully ripped from the spine. The paper danced in the air until it finally landed gracefully on the ground. He fell to the ground, almost crying at the loss.

But the books weren't there. Kakashi looked up to see the three genin standing over him, Sasuke and Naruto clutched a silver bell each. Sakura smirked proudly.

Their plan had been quite simple, Sakura cast a genjutsu on Kakashi. The jounin would break out to be ambushed by Sasuke and Naruto. The boys would force Kakashi to create distance between him to single him out. During all this, Sakura would be hidden preparing another genjutsu to through him in. The jounin fell for it, the Sakura in the genjutsu aimed at his orange book to rip it apart. Kakashi would be distracted with the torn book to notice the rosette dispelling the illusion and the boys grabbing the bells.

"We did it! We're genin!" Naruto lunged at Kakashi to try and hug him.

However the jounin simply moved to the side, letting the blonde fall over on his face.

"Your first mission will start tomorrow," Not wanting to see the genin anymore, he shunshin-ed away. The silver-haired man had never been outsmarted by genin before. Something told him that his group of genin would be quite different and unique from any other team in history.

* * *

**I'm not kidding, this chapter was probably the hardest to write. I've got an iPad mini so yeah... I had tonnes of free time today, this probably won't happen again. I'm actually very surprised I managed to upload both chapter nine and ten today.**

**-LucidClockwork**


	12. Secrets of the Fallen Clan

**Woo! I'm back! Last chapter got a lot of reviews within the twenty-four hours it was posted. Thanks for all the reviews guys! Maybe I should write on the iPad a little more often haha. **{◕ ◡ ◕}

**Full Color- 7 votes**

**Memory Escape- 9 votes**

**Light within Darkness- 2 votes**

**Past Colors of Darkness- 2 votes**

**Voting has officially ended! Thank you for all the PMs and reviews I got on the voting of the name! The name will stay as Memory Escape!**

**Now reviews!**

***Too lazy* (CherryBlossomWarrior)-** _Sorry I couldn't reply to your review on the chapter before the last chapter, the review was literally posted two minutes before I posted the next chapter. Let's just say Kakashi is sure going to be surprised by the skills Sakura shows in this fanfic._

**Miss ASSASSIN MASTER-**_ Thanks for voting! _{◕ ◡ ◕}

**ForgetfulDaffodil- **_After all, I couldn't stay all night doing nothing hahaha!_

**Twisted Musalih-** _Thanks for reviewing! Its reviews like this I really enjoy receiving._

**Art is an Eternal Bang-** _Thanks for voting! _{◕ ◡ ◕}

***Guest*-**_ Hey thanks for the critiques! I'm not going to be the one reading this afterall! I've fixed up the mistake in chapter ten by adding another scene in chapter nine. Although I wasn't quite sure what was wrong with Sukai's speech, it'd be a great help if you copy and pasted the scene and tell me how it could be improved. __Thanks for reviewing! _{◕ ◡ ◕}

**BizzyLizy:** _Thanks for reviewing! _{◕ ◡ ◕}

**If you have any problems with my writing, grammar or general understanding of the story, don't be afraid PM me or leave a review on how I could improve or help you understand.**

**Just a note,**

**This is a filler chapter, I felt like the story would be a little more interesting if Sakura had some sort of ability that made her stand out from the rest like Naruto's bijū, Sasuke's sharingan, Ino's kekkai genkai, Shikamaru's knowledge and kekkai genkai, Choji's strength, Hinata's byakugan, Lee's taijutsu, Tenten's fūinjutsu, Gaara's sand and so on and so forth. No, I'm not giving Sakura a kekkai genkai because I want characters to be well balanced in skill and power but I am giving her a new variety of self-taught techniques that ****are not**** passed down from her mother's clan. I guess this chapter won't really have many character interactions. Anyways enjoy~!**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

With each growing day, team 7 was getting closer to the point where they would have to embark on the Land of Waves mission. Sakura felt an unbelievable urge to use her golden kunai against some of the ninja they were going to face. The rosette berated herself many times to keep her hands off the weapon until she could find anything that could guide her.

Kakashi had given team 7 a day off D-ranked missions to relax and enjoy the simple things in life. Sakura however couldn't find peace given the day and headed off scouring the village for information. Her first destination had her at Tenten's weapon shop.

Ever since the day when she had sparked a rivalry with Tenten, the girl grew even stronger than she had in her previous life most likely to try and beat the rosette in their small competition over power. The brunette was almost up to par with her fifteen-year old self as a chunin.

Sakura supposed that Tenten had a push in motivation.

The bubblegum-haired kunoichi didn't receive much information other than the fact that the carved words of the clan name on the ring of the kunai were actually in fact a seal. Tenten's mother told her that the particular type of seal used was to give the kunai more strength; the previous owner had most likely sealed some of his/her chakra within the kunai.

As Sakura was using it the other day, the seal was unfamiliar with her chakra and began to weaken. The lizard she had seen was completely made of chakra. The rosette didn't tell the older woman about the creature lurking in her dreams at night; the fact was daunting enough as it was.

Tenten's weapon shop was about a 15 minute walk from the Nara clan compound. Sakura took a deep breath before rapping her fist on their door. A tired looking boy opened the door, squinting his eyes and taking in her appearance.

"Haruno?"

"Ino-pig said that you have some scrolls on some clans on Kirigakure? I'd like to borrow some if it doesn't bother you,"

Shikamaru blinked before widening the door and allowing her to come in.

The rosette gazed hopefully at the boy; he allowed her to come in and directed her straight to the library. Almost instantly she squealed ad grabbed as pulled out as many scrolls and parchments as she could. The boy rolled his eyes and took a seat on a nearby chair.

"Is there any reason you want a scroll on clans?"

Sakura paused for a moment and carefully unraveled a scroll labeled 'Kiri', "Recently, I received a clan heirloom from my mother's clan and I was hoping there would be some kind of guide on how to use it properly,"

Shikamaru sighed and leaned back into the chair, "Troublesome women, you could probably tell how to use the weapon by just looking at it closely,"

Sakura's smile dropped as she looked down at the golden kunai in her hand, "It's a bit more complicated than that, someone's sealed something inside the kunai. Everytime I use it some kind of chakra leaks out and goes wild. I want to have better control over it but… It's not that simple,"

The Nara sighed once again and hoisted himself up "Can I take a look at it?"

The rosette nodded slowly and handed the kunai to Shikamaru. His eyes dilated slightly as he brushed his finger over the seal, the seal glowed and lashed out, the words completely erasing from the kunai. The boy dropped the kunai in surprise as bright blue chakra escaped from the ring. Eventually, the kunai's bright golden color faded into a dull silver of a regular kunai.

Shikamaru stared after the escaping chakra and snapped his head to her, "That chakra could be a threat to Konoha, go after it!"

Both genin leaped from the window, surprising the civilians below.

"Where'd it go?"

Sakura pointed down the street were a familiar blue glow faded around the corner. The street fell into complete chaos, civilians screaming and running. Stall items were knocked to the ground, round objects rolled into the middle of the road. Occasional yelps from when someone had slipped over.

"Follow it!"

The rosette felt herself being rammed into by an older man. The girl flew a couple of meters away and crashed into the Ichiraku ramen store.

"Sakura-chan?" The rosette snapped her head up to see Naruto glaring at her with spilt ramen lying beside her.

"Sorry Naruto! I'll pay you back!"

She leaped out of the stall, desperately trying to spot a head full of black spiky hair. The escaping chakra had caused chaos within the streets it flew through.

**The Asylum! Hurry it's going to the asylum!**

_Inner! Can you sense it?_

Her inner stilled.

**It's… Gone…**

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Both the rosette and Shikamaru stood in front of a displeased hokage with each of their teams standing beside the hokage.

"Today was meant to be a day off of training. A free day in which you were meant to use to relax," Sakura felt a small tingle go up her spine, the man's voice seemed awfully calm.

"You two decided to cause havoc among the streets of Konoha, now I'd expect this behavior from Naruto but you two…"

Sakura saw the blonde twitch, the pinkette was glad that Naruto had decided to shut his mouth during the exchange.

"Hokage-sama,"

The older man looked at Shikamaru with indifference.

"I believe that Sakura's kunai held some kind of chakra spirit captive, when I brushed my finger over what looked to be a custom seal. Then the spirit was released," The hokage leaned forward in curiosity.

"This kunai… Would it happen to be related with the Nakato clan Sakura?"

The rosette shuffled forward and handed the kunai to the man; he brushed his thumb over the seal and passed it back to Sakura.

"I'll excuse you two just this one time, you are dismissed,"

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief before she turned away and made her way to the door.

"Sakura, I'm afraid you'll have to stay a little longer,"

The kunoichi took a sharp intake of air and stilled, stiffly turning her head to look back at the hokage.

"Yes, hokage-sama?"

The man exhaled as smoke escaped his lungs, Sakura coughed.

"Take a seat; you might like to hear a bit about your clan,"

As the kunoichi made herself comfortable, the hokage began his tale.

"The Nakato clan was a ninja clan originating from rural areas of Kirigakure; many members had an affinity of water. What made their clan unique was their custom seals," The man bit his cigar before continuing, "They had found a way to seal bits of their chakra inside a seal, as more and more chakra was infused in the seal, a chakra spirit would reside in the seal. Only growing stronger alongside its master,"

The hokage paused, lighting his cigar. The rosette didn't speak, only intrigued by the history of her mother's clan.

"Much like the tailed beasts being sealed inside a human container, the only difference would be their containers,"

The old man sighed, letting clouds of smoke escape his lungs.

"Mebuki Haruno was one of the last surviving members of the clan, in a way, becoming a part of a civilian clan and allowing others to assume she had no ninja bloodline protected her from greedy people with a need and obsession with power,"

The hokage closed his eyes, drifting away in deep thoughts. His brow scrunched as if he was contemplating on a difficult decision. He almost looked... Nostalgic...

"Hokage-sama," The rosette observed the man, watching his every move, "Did a member from my mother's clan..." She struggled to get the words out, not wanting to seem disrespectful to the wise man.

He understood anyways, nodding his head slowly. Still leaning back on his chair contemplating and feeling nostalgia from old memories, "My daughter had a deep relationship with a Nakato clan member,"

Her voice got stuck in her throat, she was speechless. Suddenly, the member the older man had just mentioned seemed like the key to everything. The history of the Nakato clan and perhaps knowledge of some of the techniques could be passed down to the rosette. The relaxed expression on the hokage's features slowly formed a small frown, Sakura's smile dropped.

"She was so happy with him, they even had a child together..." If Sakura had been any younger, she would've missed the sadness that crossed the man's face as he cringed, "Both of them were massacred, just because some power-hungry missing-nin had found out about their existence."

"Those ninjas obtained a custom seal from them, just like they had with every other Nakato they killed," The hokage was getting emotional now, Sakura hurriedly rushed to stop the man into digging back to sad times.

"I'm sorry lord-hokage-sama," The rosette paused, "W-Who is?... The Nakato child? Is he or she still alive?"

The man hesitated, "I suppose since you are a Nakato yourself, you deserve to know," He sighed, inhaling a long breath from his cigar before blowing out clouds of smoke from his mouth, "Their child was the only thing that reminded me of such a happy couple but to protect the child I couldn't brand him a Nakato to honor his parents. I had to protect his identity,"

The man's voice had fallen into a whisper now, Sakura felt her stomach twist viciously at her heart. She counted each erratic beat her heart threw against her chest. The rosette felt like she knew whoever the man was about to say.

"Konohamaru... Sarutobi,"

* * *

**Haha! Hiya! Updates are going to be a little slower now, school's back and I live in Australia. A place where weather is the most abnormal fucking thing... Don't blame me if I decide to lounge around the fan in thirty-five degree weather instead of typing up the next chapter of this story.**

**Also... Yay! I got a new laptop! Tying up these chapters won't be a pain in the ass so much!... Anymore... Anyways... Ja ne!**

**-LucidClockwork**

**PS. Sasusaku reeeeaaaalllll soooooooooonn...**


	13. Journey to the Wave Village

**Hiya! I'm back! As promised here's the new chapter and I'd like to thank all the support I got from my short hiatus message.**

**Voting has officially ended, there may be more voting in the future who knows? Unlike this time, I think I'll be setting up a poll instead, it makes things much easier but as decided by readers, this fanfic will stay as Memory Escape.**

**Now reviews!**

**ForgetfulDaffodil-**_ One question before I continue with this reply... Are you french? Or at least speak french? One of my friends have french heritage and literally fangirled when she went through my mail (Without my permission of course)... Anyways... Let's just say... Adding a bit of back story to Konohamaru's origins was a last minute decision but nonetheless it still fits into the story like a jigsaw piece._

**BizzyLizy-** _Lucky... Gosh... My country literally has abnormal weather changes. Last week was hot as hell being 35 degrees Celsius and now, 10 degrees Celsius _(￣□￣) _but I do have to admit that Australia is a great place once you get used to it._

***Guest*-** _Thanks for letting me know, I have taken it out of the summary but originally SasuIno was only going to be a minor pairing._

***Thatpastaperson*-** _Sorry voting's ended now, you can vote on other things when I put up polls and things to vote on my profile page._

***Guest*- **_Wow... I really didn't realise this, thanks for telling me! Since this is a fan-made fanfic there are some details that could go a little off. I suppose I could get around this by changing Sakura's death to a later time in shippuden. I guarantee everything will be fixed up between the uploading date of this chapter and the next. I think I'll even add in an extra chapter to clear some things up as well :3_

**Just a note,**

**Opposed to last chapter, this chapter will move a little further into the main Naruto series. There will be more filler chapters in the future when I'm writing a few more notes into the details of the main storyline.**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

Surely waiting in freezing cold weather early in the morning with the company of a Uchiha wasn't that bad?

Wrong...

Certainly the old Sakura would have appalled in delight about the simple idea but this Sakura was almost frightened to death by the thought. Being alone with a thirteen year old Sasuke while you were almost a full four years older and still had a crush on him wasn't what many would think to be an ideal situation to be stuck in.

Deciding to come earlier than usual, Sakura made her way to the front of the gates where she thought she'd be alone. The rosette could be alone with her thoughts about the information the hokage had dropped on her yesterday.

Technically, Sarutobi Konohamaru was related to Haruno/Nakato Sakura and the rosette was still a bit caught off guard by it. It occurred to Sakura that her coming into the past had changed the world from the one she knew.

Sakura didn't think there was a Nakato clan that originally existed at all, given that her mother's maiden name had been Asara which had been a civilian clan. Konohamaru however, the boy had never mentioned his parents. What might've happened to his parents in her old life?

The girl shook her head, there was no use thinking about it now. Her new home was here and she'd have to get used to what happened in this timeline. What happened to his parents in her old life didn't matter anymore.

It happened so suddenly, caught up in her thoughts, Sakura didn't notice the giant tree root in the middle of the path that would've been as clear as day to see. Her sandal hooked under the small gap under the root, Sakura yelped as she flailed, closing her eyes as she braced for the impact her body would make with the ground.

After a few moments, Sakura snapped an eye open to see the ground inches under her face.

"You should really watch where you're going Sakura,"

The rosette lightly glared at the Uchiha towering over her, preventing her from colliding with the ground by holding her arm securely in place. Sakura tugged at his hand to try and pull away with no heed.

"I'm fine," She grumbled as she continued to try and pry away his arm, "I can stop myself from falling Sasuke,"

The Uchiha simply just shrugged nonchalantly, "Sure," he let go of her arm letting her fall.

The sudden action caught the rosette off guard, she yelped as she swerved her body to try and land on her side instead of directly on her face only to be stopped once again, inches closer to the ground, "Did you really think I'd let you fall? You really need to have more trust in me,"

She wondered if Sasuke felt tingles running up his arm, his heart fluttering at her touch. She knew she was.

He gently pulled her up until she regained her balance, Sakura slipped her foot out from under the root and smiled graciously at him, he turned away from her as the atmosphere suddenly grew quiet.

"Uh Sasuke?" She asked in a small voice.

"Hn?"

Sakura hung her head and stared at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, trying to hide her embarrassment from the thirteen year old boy, "You can let go of my hand now..."

Sasuke's onyx eyes trailed to his hand still entwined in her fingers as if they belonged there, as if they were meant to be connected like two pieces of an a thousand piece puzzles. He looked back up at Sakura, smirking at her. The rosette simply gazed at him in curiosity with her cheeks tinted in a light shade of pink. He let go, immediately missing the warmth of her hand in his own but he didn't let it show.

Without saying anything, Sasuke turned his back on the gates and in the direction where a blonde came running to the two.

"All right! Let's go!"

"But where's Kakashi-sensei and Tazu-" The rosette faltered when she saw two men trailing behind Naruto, Tazuna lazily gulping up his alcohol and the silver-haired jounin with his hands stuffed in his pockets. She shook her head, "Never mind,"

"Why are you so excited for Dobe?" The Uchiha asked in his signature stoic tone.

The blonde pumped his fists up in the air, then up top his forehead and searched around the area, showing his enthusiasm, "Because I've never gone outside the village before dattebayo!"

Tazuna's brow furrowed, he put his hand on his hip and closed his eyes, "Hey will a kid like this really be capable of this mission?" He turned his head towards towards Kakashi and pointed at Naruto lazily.

"I, a jounin, will be accompanying you," Kakashi chuckled, his eyes creased as he laughed at the blonde's antics.

However Naruto crossed his arms and glared angrily at the floor before turning around and pointing at the old man in rage, "Hey Oji! Don't underestimate ninjas! I'm a great ninja!"

"I'm an elite ninja who'll receive the title of hokage one day! The name's Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo! Remember it!"

The rosette shifted her attention to some trees, furrowing her brow and sucking in a deep breath trying to remember anything that had attacked Team 7 last time. Her body stiffened once again as she felt a chakra signature through the leafy canopy of branches of the nearby trees but it was gone as soon as it came.

There was no doubt that it was the demon brothers, Sakura shuddered just thinking about the last time they had attacked them. Kakashi's remains exploding into small pieces as chains ripped him apart, how Naruto had frozen to the spot, how she'd been too weak to do anything to help leaving only the Uchiha to protect the bridge builder.

"Ne... you alright Sakura?" The rosette blinked as her world refocused, a strong arm gripped her bicep, holding her firmly in place.

She weakly smiled, "I'm alright, I just thought of something," Sakura shrugged off whoever was holding onto her arm, only realising the hand was Sasuke's once he'd released her.

"You spaced off, Sasuke-Teme caught you before you almost fell dattebayo!"

Kakashi cleared his throat, holding up his orange book in front of his face.

"If my favorite little genin are ready to go we'll be heading off to the land of the waves," The albino's lone visible eye creased as he smiled under his smile.

"Yosh!" Naruto pumped his fist in the air energetically.

The rosette wasn't sure whether Kakashi was only referring to her but she could tell that the man was starting to soften up to his new team, maybe even faster than last time.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Ne... Tazuna-san,"

"Nande?"

"You're from the country of the wave right?" Of course the rosette knew the answer, she just wanted to get Kakashi to quickly see through the Tazuna's lie without seeming to suspicious.

He paused for a moment, "What about it?"

Sakura smoothed out the creases in her training dress before turning her head to Kakashi, "Ne... Kakashi-sensei, are there also ninja in that country?" Once again, she knew the answer.

"No, there are no ninja in the country of the wave," The rosette bit the inside of her lip, hoping that the jounin had somehow gotten the hint this time around when the demon brothers would attack.

"But while the cultures and customs of other countries may be different, hidden villages and ninja do exist," Sakura nodded in understanding as Kakashi continued with his talk.

She had known all this from her older life, it'd taken Sakura a little more than a few hours to understand all the different village customs and culture but now it would just come to her as general knowledge. The rosette vaguely took in any information and kept her eye out for the first sign post, the puddle on the side of the path.

"Ne... Kakashi-sensei," Sakura called out, she bobbed next to the puddle, completely sure of the disguised ninja inside.

"Nani?"

"Are there suppose to be puddles when it hasn't rained for months?"

The demon brothers took that moment to shoot out of the puddle, Sakura quickly rolled out of the way to avoid being ripped to shreds by the chains, her previous position was lined with kunai and shuriken. Instead of the chunin aiming for the jounin first. Sakura found herself being in the line of attack.

She quickly went through her possibilities, Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke were too far away to help her. The widening of the jounin's lone eye told her that he seemed to know that too. Kakashi could try to get to her but that would leave Tazuna open to attacks, the boys were too stunned to even grab their weapons to fight back.

'**Remember Sakura, defend, don't attack. Attacking might reveal your strengths, plus, genin have only learned how to defend,'** Sakura gritted her teeth, she'd have to listen to her inner for now.

Sakura quickly pulled out a kunai, deflecting the chains that darted towards her, then using her chakra to dash to one of the brothers while dodging the chains as best she could. The rosette ignored the pain that ran through her upper arm as the chain sliced through her flesh. She quickly calculated her strategy.

There was still the issue of her strengths, there were people watching her fight. Sakura couldn't afford suspicion from anyone, not even the hokage. The rosette delivered a punch without lacing her chakra into it. The chunin faltered, giving Sakura enough time to place him under a genjutsu. Her chakra was almost drained to nothing, Sakura winced, her reserves were still pathetic. She shouldn't have used her chakra to charge in so recklessly. She fell onto her knees, supporting herself with her arms.

The chunin fell to his knees then onto his side. Sakura spotted Kakashi running towards the other brother, only to be sliced up into little pieces.

_Its just a substitution, its just a substitution..._

Regardless of that fact, Sakura felt herself stiffen. The guts flying everywhere, the sound of flesh being torn up like it was of insignificance. She felt sick in the stomach, like she wanted to suddenly let out her breakfast from her mouth.

The remaining brother's eyes flickered at her, Sakura raised her kunai in order to defend if he was aiming for her. Then he dashed, not towards the rosette but towards the stunned boys. Sakura was much too far away to help the boys defend the bridge builder.

"Naruto, Sasuke look out!" The rosette screamed.

Sasuke seemed to be the first one to recover, he launched a shuriken at the oncoming chain, connecting the last brother's weapon with a tree, rendering it useless. Naruto had also seemed to snap out of his trance, before the demon brother could release the chain from his arm the blonde delivered a sharp kick to his jaw effectively knocking him out.

"Yo,"

Even though the rosette knew Kakashi was alive and okay, she couldn't help but feel relieved at seeing the older man alive and fine. The knots in her stomach loosened as she ran over to him and squashed him in a bear hug.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Only Naruto seemed to look back at what had looked like Kakashi's flesh, meat, guts and viscera lying on the floor, only noticing that Kakashi had performed substitution jutsu which had ultimately saved his life.

"Sorry for not helping right away," Kakashi's eye flickered to Sakura's wound. It was a large cut reaching from a little below her elbow to her upper shoulder, in the midst of the 'intense' battle, the adrenaline left Sakura rather painless. The cut wasn't to say the least a shallow cut, being a medic herself, Sakura was sure that her triceps were severed severely, her flesh opening up to reveal her bone. The rosette's right arm was almost soaked in blood.

"I didn't think they would aim for you, you put up a good fight anyways," Sakura nodded, looking down at her cut, "There's poison on these guys' chains, we need to take out the poison right away and by the looks of that cut," Kakashi shook his head.

"You aren't in any condition to finish this mission unless you can get that checked out by a qualified medical shinobi," Sakura pushed herself off the ground, Sasuke was by her side in an instant, pushing her back down onto the ground.

"You shouldn't move too much, the poison will spread through your body. We'll remove it the you'll go back to Konoha," Sakura knew that under the younger Uchiha's stoic mask, he was worried. She shrugged of his hands off her shoulder.

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm fine, see?" The rosette started to leech out the poison from her arm, before mending her triceps back together then stitching up her flesh with her warm green chakra.

The jounin blinked in surprise, he turned to Tazuna and looked over at Sakura who was still mending her wound. Naruto silently watching in amazement at the rosette's medical ninjutsu and Sasuke cleaning off some blood from her skin.

"By the way Tazuna-san,"

"W-What is it?"

"I need to talk to you,"

A few moments later, the two chunin were tied up against the tree. Sakura's arm was functioning yet again, everyone stood around the two shinobi.

"These guys are chunin-classed shinobi from the Hidden Village of Mist. They're ninja known to keep fighting no matter the cost,"

The brother Sakura had placed under the genjutsu glared hatefully at the rosette, "How was that pink-haired wannabe kunoichi able to see through our disguise?"

Sakura pretended she hadn't heard the insult, they didn't know anything about her strength and she was simply holding back during the battle, "It hasn't rained for the past few days and its sunny today so a water puddle shouldn't exist."

The other brother glanced at chunin spitefully, realising his mistake and letting a pink-haired 'genin' girl get the upper hand.

"Why'd you pretend to die when you could've easily taken them out?" Tazuna pointed. Kakashi looked over the brothers, closing his eyes and opening them once again.

"I needed to know who the target for these two were,"

"W-What do you mean? We could've died dattebayo!" Naruto yelled angrily.

Kakashi simply pretended he hadn't heard the blonde, he turned his back to the youngest boy and continued his conversation with the bridge builder, "In other words, were you being targeted or was it somebody from our shinobi group?"

"We haven't heard anything about you being targeted by shinobi. Your request was to protect you from armed groups like gangs and robbers. This is a mission that's above a B-rank," Tazuna stared at the jounin indifferently but Sakura could tell what he was feeling, lost hope for his village.

"Our job was to support and guard you until you completed the bridge. If shinobi are our enemy, this mission would have been an expensive B-rank,"

"This wasn't a part of the mission,"

At that moment, Sakura felt her world spinning, her head pounding uncontrollably. She leaned over, falling into Sasuke's arms.

"Sakura! What's wrong?"

"Chakra... Little... Sleepy," The rosette could only get little words out before her vision was overcome with darkness. A sandstorm seemingly swept her away into a world where she couldn't hear or see. Sakura cursed herself for using too much chakra. She could only hope Sasuke and Naruto would do fine without her during the first confrontation between Haku and Zabuza.

Her thoughts dimmed until she felt the darkness of the world tying her down, pulling her away where she was needed most.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It seemed like hours since the darkness pulled her in. Sakura struggled to breathe, desperately trying to urge her hands to move and grasp her throat as if it would help her breathe again.

'**Sakura, wake up,'**

Her world was suddenly outlined with an outline of herself, Sakura's other self stared at her. The other Sakura was completely colorless with the exception of the white outline of her body.

"Inner?"

She nodded and helped her up, the rosette still felt the urge to breathe.

'**You're unconscious right now so I brought here to your mindscape,'**

Sakura groaned, looking around the dark and dingy place, "I'd never thought I'd actually meet the voice inside my head," The rosette retorted, "And I always thought that my mindscape would filled with water instead of complete darkness,"

Inner Sakura shrugged, the surroundings changed. It was still dark but the darkness didn't feel as thick. Both Sakura and her inner were standing pool of water reaching inches above their ankles,**'This place can be whatever you want it to be,'**

Inner Sakura shook her head, **'But that's not what I brought you here for,'**

The said person gestured to kunai which once shone in the colors of the bright sun, **'Have you noticed anything different about that kunai?'**

Before Sakura could reply, her inner spoke once again, **'The color's changed and the Nakato clan seal's disappeared. You may not realise it but that kunai was housing part of your mother's chakra, when you released whatever chakra was in it the kunai reverted back to normal,'**

Sakura took out said kunai from her ninja pouch and gazed at it, rubbing her thumb against the cold metal blade, "Oka-san couldn't have sealed anything in it, she may have been part of that clan but according to the remaining records of the clan, Nakato clan members were regular ninja apart from the seals they were hunted for,"

Inner Sakura placed her hand on the blade, Sakura widened her eyes as her hand started to glow a faint shade of pink. Inner Sakura's body started to gain color, she grinned at Sakura before her white outline was starting to fade.

'**Why do you think I exist Sakura? Because you're a descendant of the Nakato clan,'**

Sakura's pupil dilated as Inner Sakura started fading away ever so slower, "But that means-"

'**Mebuki had an inner too,'**

Sakura shot up from her sleep, her breathing erratic, her body sweating like crazy. Who was Nakato Mebuki?

* * *

**I'm going to be speeding up the story a bit. Longer chapters, more detail and more cliffhangers. Was the fight scene good? Apparently fight scenes are pretty hard to write. I'm currently working on chapter 4.1, in other words, a filler chapter that will take place between chapter 4 and chapter 5.**

**Anyone that follows this story... I am so sorry that I spammed your emails with new chapters. I wrote chapter 4.1 (the filler) and ended up moving it to the wrong spot so I had to delete all my chapters then repost but I got really confused so I did it again until I got the chapter order right and I am very so very sorry.**

**-LucidClockwork**


	14. A New Revelation

**Hiya! I****'m back! Here's the new chapter of Memory Escape along with my dearest apologies of the chapter spam incident. Anyways enjoy~!**

**Now reviews!**

***Guest-dere*-** _Thanks for the advice! Originally, I made her come back at the age of five years old but then I changed it to four years after I drew out the story and the thing about Ino being called a slut... Sorry about that, please excuse my potty mouth I sometimes let it slip whilst I'm writing. I didn't actually mean to paint that type of picture. Well no matter! That has been changed! The reason your review on chapter ten went on chapter nine is probably because of the chapter incident. Sorry, hehehe..._

_Yes I do realise that in canon Konohamaru's parents are in actuality ANBU but I wanted develop the Nakato clan a little more and I don't think people would be very happy if I added in (another) OC. Konohamaru's parents in canon don't appear at all and don't play any particular special role so all is well! I don't plan to make the Nakato clan a kekkai genkai clan but just a ninja clan (sort of like the Yamanaka, Akimichi and Nara clans) with hidden techniques. The only excuse I can really say for Konohamaru not needing to worry about Kiri is that he can never be too safe. Unfortunately I haven't watched Boruto the Movie so I didn't know that fact._

_Even though Sakura has perfect chakra control, I think I shouldn't make her too OP... I mean Naruto and Sasuke would get too jealous XD. Also, she needs to hide her skills so that no one can suspect her. I have seen wayyyyy... Too many fics were Sasuke is completely out of character... Confessing his love to Sakura? Too OOC, being a living ice block... My point exactly. Seriously, even Sasuke is human and some fanfiction writers are too bent on making him heartless. I wanted to make him human, not too cold and not too warm but just... Him... Maybe a little warmer because the Uchiha Massacre hasn't happened and he was close to Sakura as a child._

**CherryblossomWarrior-** _Reading your review actually made my day. Thank you so much for spending your precious time on my story. My family's been away for a holiday for a while so I've been pretty lonely but this review makes up for it. __Arigatōgozaimasu_(◠△◠✿)

**havanatitiana-** _I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Hopefully Sasuke isn't too OOC_ (◠△◠✿)

**BizzyLizy-**_Completely sorry for any inconvenient, the filler chapter was a pain to insert. I__'m glad you liked the last chapter, here's the next one _(◠△◠✿)

**Just a note,**

**I****'m wondering whether I should end this story after Naruto goes to train with Jiraiya like how the anime ends then write a sequel on what happens during Shippuden or not end the story until I get up to the moment when Sakura was suppose to die. I'll let my reviewers decide.**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

The rosette groaned, feeling a heavy pain in her stomach. She lay back down, and gazed at the ceiling, lost in her thoughts. It seemed that the boys had dealt with Haku and Zabuza just fine albeit her sensei lay on the futon beside her unmoving. He was still unconscious, Sakura supposed the events of her previous life had repeated themselves whilst she was knocked out. It must have been bothersome for Naruto and Sasuke to protect both her body and the bridge builder at the same time.

Sakura sighed, she'd once again been a burden to her team members. She shook of the disheartening feeling and gazed blankly at the ceiling.

Inner Sakura had spoken to her in her mindscape, revealing information about the Nakato clan that surely couldn't have been written down anywhere else. It made sense if Mebuki did have an inner like her, the chakra spirit or beast that was released out of the once golden kunai would have taken her mother's life force if it was just pure chakra. It also would explain why Nakato clan members were hunted for their seals. There was no way anybody else could obtain a chakra beast, jinchūriki were live bodies and could fend off many ninja that tried to hunt them. The Nakato inners were much easier to get their hands on albeit the chakra spirit was much weaker than a tailed beast.

That would also mean if she revealed her clan origins to her team, it would be likely if she was hunted as well.

Sakura lifted a hand to her temple and rubbed it soothingly. It was obvious that the world separation subject had altered some things in her universe, she didn't think this clan would exist otherwise.

The rosette felt uneasiness grow in the pit of her stomach, in her current state, she wouldn't be able to help Naruto and Sasuke with their next run in with Haku and Zabuza. Her limbs were still heavy with exhaustion and it wouldn't be wise to use medical chakra after she only just recovered from chakra depletion. The closest thing to healing herself without exhausting her chakra was just to release a few chakra channels of stress and built-up tenseness, allowing her body to sink further into the futon in relaxation.

The jounin on the futon beside her shifted but otherwise remained asleep.

Sometimes Sakura wished that she had automatic chakra regeneration like Sasuke's Indra Chakra or an unlimited amount of chakra like Naruto's Kyūbi but she was only just Sakura Haruno with her only specialty of medical ninjutsu.

The door creaked open as light flooded into the room, Sakura feigned sleep as the person walked in. From their chakra signature, she could tell it was Sasuke with Naruto following close behind. The door softly shut behind them as they walked over to their sensei's futon.

"Are you awake, sensei?"

"Aa," The older man gave a groggy response as he shifted in the bed.

So Kakashi-sensei had been awake afterall.

Sakura couldn't see through the darkness under her heavy eyelids but she presumed the silver-haired jounin was deep in thought, "What's wrong sensei dattebayo?"

"Oh.. About what I was talking about before," The covers of the futon shifted ever so slightly, "Pursuing ninja are suppose to eliminate the corpse on the spot,"

Sakura sighed internally, she might have been able to stop Haku and Zabuza if she'd been conscious at the time. She debated whether it would've been a good idea or not, if the two wanted ninja were caught, Naruto would've never gained appreciation he desperately needed but this time around if she was too weak to help her team things may very well turn out differently. Her hand balled up into a fist as she clenched the sheets.

"The boy with the mask took away Zabuza instead of eliminating him," Sasuke said with horror and realisation.

"Also, the weapon that the boy used to kill Zabuza is questionable," Kakashi stated.

"A long needle, a senbon..." Sasuke paused before murmuring in a lower voice, "Could it be...?"

Another two people walked into the room, however, one didn't even try to mute their footsteps. Sakura presumed it was Tazuna and his daughter, Tsunami, "What are you guys talking about?" He asked loudly.

"Lower your voice, my favorite little genin needs her rest," The rosette blushed but she found no reason to continue her act. She groaned and flipped over, alerting everyone that she was awake.

Groggily, the rosette pushed herself up and ran her hand through her disheveled bubblegum locks. The jounin shot her a quick side glance before continuing, "Zabuza is still alive,"

"WHAT?!"

"W-What.." The blonde stuttered nervously, "What does that mean? Dattebayo?! You confirmed he was dead!"

Kakashi let out a breathy sigh, "I did confirm it,"

Sasuke gave him a questioning look.

"But he was most likely merely in a near-death state," His face hardened grimly, "The weapon that the pursuing ninja used has a low fatality rate unless it hits a critical spot,"

"Senbon... Right?" Both the jounin and her raven haired teammate glanced at her curiously. Internally, she berated herself for letting information slip. She wasn't suppose to know anything, afterall she was unconscious during the fight.

Luckily, Sakura wasn't too bad at lying, "I read something in one of the scrolls Ino kept in her room, it mainly had information about medical procedures, one of the main reasons I read through it."

Kakashi gave her a brisk nod, urging her to continue, "Senbon are mostly used in acupuncture healing and such. The pursuing ninja you were talking about has knowledge on the structure of the human body, it'd only be sensible that it'd be easy for them to put someone in a near-death state," Sakura pointed.

"The boy didn't kill Zabuza, he helped him," The albino informed.

Tazuna twitched and fidgeted with his two pointer fingers nervously, much like the Hyuga heiress back in Konoha, "Maybe you're thinking too much,"

"It's our job to," Sasuke cut in.

Kakashi nodded in confirmation, "Ninja must be prepared for the worst before it's too late,"

From the corner of her eye, she could see the grin spreading across Naruto's face. Sakura faintly smiled, she'd forgotten how reckless the blonde had been as a genin. Back in her timeline, he'd adopted a more cautious approach to fights and battles.

Kakashi turned to her, slightly cringing from the pain in his abdomen, "I'll inform you about what happened while you were unconscious," He gave a side glance to Naruto and Sasuke, "I'm going to make you two go through some training,"

Sakura ignored the numb feeling washing over her legs as she hoisted herself up, Naruto was beside her almost instantly, worrying about his friend's well-being. She gave a sheepish smile and leaned her weight on the blonde's shoulder.

"I'm going too,"

Kakashi shook his head, "You need all the rest you can get for when we meet up with Zabuza again,"

Sakura frowned, "There's no point in letting me join the fight if I can't do anything to help,"

The jounin hesitated before sighing and withdrawing. The rosette missed the slight crinkle in his mask as she turned away to join Sasuke who had already left the house. His genin were growing up fast. He lowered back into futon, watching the faint silhouettes of his students leaving Tazuna's house and into a nearby forest.

Tazuna's daughter crouched beside him, "Kakashi-san," She paused, "How are you going to prepare before it's too late? You can't move for a while..."

He just chuckled, "Do you have crutches?"

Tsunami blinked before hoisting herself up. A loud bang of a slamming door sounded, Kakashi raised an eyebrow as a small boy came storming in, "Stupid ninjas, they're going to die," He mumbled.

"Inari! Where were you?" Tazuna exclaimed as the boy known as 'Inari inched closer to Tazuna.

Inari clenched his fists tightly, "Did those ninja escort you home? Ojī-Chan?"

Tazuna blinked questionably.

"Kaa-chan, they're going to die," Inari paused, "There's no way a person can win by going against Gatō,"

"Inari!" Tsunami hushed, "Don't say things like that!"

The boy paid no heed to his mother's words, ignoring the stares from his mother, grandpa and guest, "Where are you going, Inari?" Tazuna asked.

"Ocean," He replied shortly as he gazed back at his grandpa, "I'll go watch the ocean,"

The tension in the room was thick, Tazuna gazed around to Kakashi, "Sorry about that,"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"We will now begin the training," The albino limped lamely to his students.

"Roger!" Naruto praised enthusiastically, Sakura rolled her eyes but smiled.

"But before that," Kakashi raised a finger, "Let me once again talk about chakra, the base for the ability as a ninja,"

Sasuke sniffed imperiously, "At a time like this?"

The rosette elbowed him in the side and gave him a short glare which the raven-haired adolescence gladly returned. The jounin cleared his throat, gaining his students' attention once again.

"Chakra is energy that a ninja needs to utilize a technique," He paused, "That energy comes from the body energy that is collected from every cell in the body and from the spirit energy that comes from training and experience"

"In other words," Naruto cut in, "It's the blue stuff that came out from Sakura's body when she did that jutsu to run fast at the two ninja,"

Kakashi sighed, "Iruka-Sensei was blessed with a brilliant student, I see," He retorted sarcastically.

The blonde scratched the back of head sheepishly, passing a blinding grin to his teammates, "Aw, shucks... Arigatō Kakashi-Sensei!"

"Idiot," Sasuke mumbled as he shook his head.

The rosette lifted a hand to her face, her teammates watched the blonde in dissatisfaction with his answer. Sakura hand fell limply to her side as she stepped forward.

"Listen up Naruto," She cut into his mirth, "When I used my chakra to dash, it wasn't a jutsu. Chakra dashing is a technique that requires near perfect chakra control and a good sense of chakra manipulation. Although chakra dashing shouldn't be used too recklessly unless you want chakra depletion," Sakura didn't point out the fact that she'd fallen from using the technique.

Naruto nodded in anticipation, "Oo... I see!"

"Anyway..." Kakashi rolled his eyes, "You guys aren't able to use your chakra completely,"

"And how do we...?" The Uchiha trailed off.

"Molding chakra means to extract energy from both the body and the spirit, then mixing them up in your body, and the amount of energy will differ from the type of technique you wish to execute," Kakashi turned to Sakura.

"For example..." He flared up his chakra in his feet, "Chakra dashing is a low level technique although it does require heavy concentration and near perfect chakra control like Sakura said. Chakra dashing doesn't use up a huge amount of chakra but shouldn't be used a number of times,"

"Other techniques will differ in the amount of chakra used to execute it," Kakashi included, "All techniques require one that is able to form a seal," He quickly added.

"What's with that?" Naruto interrupted loudly, "You can just learn that with your body even if you don't understand the hard stuff dattebayo!"

The albino's lone eye glared briefly, "You are not able to use your Chakra effectively, even if you're able to mold a large amount of Chakra... If you cannot control the balance, your technique will only be half as effective or not executed at all,"

Naruto stiffened as the jounin continued, "Wasting energy will create a weakness of not being able to fight for a long time,"

The blonde glanced at his two teammates, worried how his skills might affect them, "So what should I do?" He nervously chuckled in an attempt to hide his anxiety.

Sakura looked over to Sasuke. This was when they'd learn chakra control, the only difference was that Kakashi had already seen her perfect chakra control in action when she fought with the demon brothers. The rosette couldn't help but worry what kind of training he'd put her in instead.

"You're going to learn how to control it with your body, you must go through rigorous training where you put your life on the line," Sakura rolled her eyes, her sensei was exaggerating yet Sasuke and Naruto looked more frightened (In Sasuke's case, serious) than she'd ever seen them in this timeline.

"So... What are we going to do?" The rosette asked.

She waited for it...

Kakashi lifted a finger over his mask, "Climb a tree,"

His three students faceplanted.

"That's right! But it's no ordinary tree climbing. You're going to climb without using your hands,"

Sasuke gave his sensei a strange look, "And how do we do that?" He asked skeptically.

The jounin gave a disheveled sigh, most likely at how long it had taken to just explain chakra, "Just watch,"

He clasped his hand over his index and middle finger, forming the ram seal. He hobbled over to the tree, lifting one foot onto the rough bark and slowly limping up the trunk of the tree. He watched as looks of amazement (Naruto), skepticism (Sasuke) and plain boredom (Sakura) etched on his student's faces. He had expected the latter's reaction, she had afterall performed a chakra dash.

"He's climbing..." Naruto started.

"Vertically with just his legs..." Sasuke's left eye twitched.

Kakashi hung beneath a horizontal branch, ignoring the fact that his crutches had no chakra system but still evaded the laws of gravity, "This is how," He called out.

"Gather your chakra at the bottom of your feet and make it attach to the tree trunk, something like this is possible if you use chakra,"

"I don't get it!" The blonde yelled irritably, "How can we become strong by just doing that dattebayo!?"

"Now we get to the main topic," Sakura could tell by the tone in his voice that her sensei was clearly getting impatient, "The main purpose of this training is to accumulate the right amount of molded chakra in the right location. This is difficult even for a well-trained ninja,"

"The amount of chakra used for this tree climbing exercise is quite subtle and the most difficult place to concentrate chakra is said to be behind the feet. In other words, if you're able to master this you can learn any kind of technique," Kakashi continued before adding, "In theory, that is,"

Naruto shuffled his feet anxiously, Sakura shifted her attention. It was clear that the blonde wanted to start the exercise already.

"The second purpose..." The albino held up two fingers, "... Is to maintain that molded chakra. Most of the time, ninja mold their chakra during battle. In that situation..." The rosette blanked out, she'd remembered the first time and knew that she didn't need to listen a second. She only blinked back to reality when two kunai were flung in front of Sasuke and Naruto, the third kunai clearly missing from in front of her.

"Sasuke, Naruto... Use that knife to mark where you are able to climb up to with your current ability. Then try and make a new mark above that mark. You guys aren't good enough to climb by walking, so run to give yourself a boost and get used to it,"

"Got it?" He called. Naruto and Sasuke nodded. The albino turned to Sakura.

"I've already seen your abilities with chakra control when you were fighting the demon brothers. I'll give you a different exercise to master,"

The rosette nodded as Kakashi hobbled down the tree next to her. He placed a hand under his chin before looking down at her.

"Let's try..." He paused, "Water walking,"

Sakura gulped, with the limited abilities she had now, she wasn't sure if she could stay completely dry.

* * *

**Yeah... Sorry everyone. This chapter is a little uneventful. Just to be clear, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke met Inari when they left Tazuna's house a little before Kakashi did. I'm deciding whether I should split up the next chapter and end the Land of the Waves arc on chapter sixteen or not split it and end on chapter fifteen. I'm going to skip the rest of training which means that no one is going to see Sakura fail at water walking XD. Anyways...**

**Ja Ne!**

**-LucidClockwork**


	15. Ocean Wave

**Hi... It feels weird writing again. I originally wrote out this chapter early on my hiatus notice but when I was about post it, I reread it and it was... ****_Absolutely Horrible..._**

**So yeah...**

**I quickly rewrote this chapter but guess what?! I get a writer's block... I've been dying to get back to my laptop to polish it but it's all the way in Australia...**

**Oh yeah... I'm also in Taiwan right now for a holiday, that's a plus. Although, I'm only staying for four days then leaving to go to Hong Kong for the rest of my holiday.**

**Except that this chapter has been haunting me in my sleep.**

**Well the good thing is that I've finally gotten over the horrible disease that kills writers all over the world and I'm actually in a mood to write after a month of absence, including the actual disease I had *cough* *cough* (stomach infection).**

**Keep in mind that since I'm in Taiwan, I had to find other ways to write up this chapter instead of the easy route with my laptop. The alternative was using my iPad so this is going to be a bit scrappy but a better chapter than the original nonetheless...**

**Wow... That was a lengthy Author's note...**

**Now reviews! To **

***Guest*-**_Unfortunately, I'll have to be skipping that part. I've written up the scene a few times but something just didn't feel right. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story so far, I'll try to update as soon as I can next time! _( :3 )

***Guest-Dere*-** _Aa... I love long reviews, especially if they have relevance to the story._

_Well, let's just say I don't like time travel stories where the time traveller (In this case, Sakura) spills the beans straight off the bat. It might just be me but I lose interest almost immediately._

_Oh right... Getting off topic..._

_Inner turmoils is what gets character development going. It seemed appropriate that an introvert person like Sakura would have a few self esteem issues and all in all, readers love a little more detail._

_Another thought I had was character bashing but I'm not really a person that hates anyone in real life, it seems wrong if I bash a character even if they're fictional and unreal. In my point of view, I feel like characters should be treated like humans, they were created to be similar to one so I don't see the point in character bashing (Though that might just be a weird fetish). I decided to incorporate a few thoughts of that in my writing, what if Sakura thought the same thing as many Naruto fans? What if she thought she was useless too?_

_These things are everyday thoughts, making me space out of reality as I'm in the middle of cooking steak and end up burning my kitchen (and house but you don't need to know that (Forget it now))._

_I'm rambling aren't I?_

_Well I like to get __all__ my thoughts out on paper (or my iPad), hope you don't mind..._

_Slip of the tongue... Well... She's a human isn't she? No Mary Sues here Yessiree!_

_Aa... A mistake on my behalf, sorry. I haven't been following Naruto as close as any die hard fan of Naruto so I mainly get my info off the fanfics I read and the Naruto wiki._

_Don't worry, I've watched (and read) the entire Pre-Shippuden Naruto so I understand how everything works._

_I had forgotten that detail, I haven't watched Naruto in a while. A few things slipped my mind. I hope you can forgive me (cries dramatically with the sunset in the background (Picture Lee and Gai hugging))._

_Though I can't remember whether I've fixed that yet or not and I'm too lazy to check. I promise to fix that mistake as soon as I get back home to Australia._

_Thank you for reviewing and taking your time to read my work! This fanfic wouldn't be half as good if it weren't for the constructive criticism I kindly receive from my fans (if I have any lol), majority of which come from your honesty. You should really get a FF account, that way I can recognise you. Your criticism has really helped me and I would've offered for you to become the beta reader of this story. You seem to know what's best anyways._

_I love having these little conversations with my reviewers. I can relate and it feels less awkward than the conversations I have with my friends at school (should conversations with close friends even be awkward?). I'm glad that you are enjoying the fanfic thus far._

_Oh my gosh... I really want to see the Boruto movie... Really badly..._

_Unfortunately I am sadly a perfectionist and I cannot watch even a minute of the movie without ruining it for myself cause it's in Korean audio._

_I hate English dub so I hate every dub (pessimistic, I know)._

_The Last was heavily NaruHina (not that I'm complaining) but I'm really hoping there's going to be a SasuSaku movie. I'm heading over to Japan and Taiwan in a few days so don't be surprised if you turn on the TV and see me on the news being thrown out the window of Kishimoto's office (Or wherever the heavens he works)._

_We should start a hashtag #EvenSasukeUchihaisHuman on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and those are the only social media apps I can think of with an IQ of 3 ( :| )_

***Guest*-**_Thank you for your wonderful compliment, I'll definitely work harder for the next few chapters to come out on time. _( \ (~ _~) / )

**Just a note,o**

**This chapter was especially hard to write with the dreaded writer's block and I wasn't the least bit in a mood to write so I've decided that this chapter is going to be a little different. As you know, Memory Escape is written in third person but the protagonist is Sakura, meaning that the story is mainly in her prospective. I've decided to switch things up a bit, in this chapter, I'll look a bit into Naruto and Sasuke's thoughts.**

**On another note, this chapter is to commemorate the one year anniversary of Memory Escape! It isn't much but my holiday clashed with the date so it's a little unfortunate.**

**STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**

* * *

A heavy hearted sigh escaped the rosette as she stuck a finger in her tea watching its contents ripple in contemplation.

On his left side, the blonde idiot with an IQ test of a slug noisily gulped down his food before slamming his bowl back down on the table and demanding seconds. In mere seconds, his face glowed brightly green as he leant over to the side of the table to empty the meal through his mouth.

Sasuke grimaced as he threw away his remaining food on his plate, suddenly losing his appetite. He would've joined Naruto in the eating contest if not for the rosette sitting across from him.

She paid no heed to the events around her, lost in thought. Sasuke could tell, he'd been her friend for as long as he could remember. If she was paying attention, she would've scolded Naruto already yet she didn't.

She politely declined Tazuna's offer for food, instead pouring herself a cup of green tea but not even taking a sip of it. Her frowned grimly, her mouth set to line and her brow creased in concentration, stirring away at the contents of the warm green tea, obviously cooled down from the constant stirring.

She was troubled, and he could tell but it was clear that she wasn't ready to share anything. All the years she'd been by her side, her actions were genuine, caring but there was a hidden darkness behind her bright smiles and wisdom.

He wasn't stupid, Naruto might've been too dense to notice but Sasuke could see that she was in pain yet she hid it from everyone.

The thought made him frown, was her secret so troubling that she couldn't share it with him? Or even Naruto? Her parents weren't with her anymore so...

_'Ino!'_

The youngest Uchiha bolted out of his seat, Sakura snapped out of her thoughts, looking over to him with questioning eyes.

He didn't notice, instead, slowly collapsing against his seat once more.

_'She had to know? Right?'_

They were best friends and Ino was there for the rosette in her her darkest times. The murder of her parents was probably the most haunting thing anyone could ever face yet she didn't seem all that affected.

Or was she hiding the pain under her mask?

Her hidden darkness was hurting her more than she realised. He felt his heart pound with apprehension, the darkness was familiar... Like he'd felt it once before...

No!

What was he talking about? He was the luckiest out of his friends. Sakura's parents had been murdered brutally and the crime scene had been absolutely horrific. Though his parents didn't allow him to actually see what had become of her parents, he'd seen enough body bags labelled with different body parts to know that her parents had been sliced and diced and she'd seen it all. Naruto didn't know his parents, he was lonely, neglected by Konoha's residents with only the local academy teacher and the homage caring for his wellbeing. That is until Sakura became friends with him and introduced him to Sasuke. Although Naruto and the Uchiha had gotten off on the wrong foot, Sasuke genuinely...

_'What is wrong with me? I think Naruto's stupidity is starting to rub off on me...'_

Definitely contagious, there was no other explanation...

Sasuke was pulled away from his thoughts by a sweet voice, "Why..." She started, not lifted her gaze from her tea, "Are you hanging a torn picture?"

Sasuke's brow furrowed. How could've she known about the torn picture? She was definitely not paying any attention to anything...

"Inari-kun was watching this during dinner the entire time," She continued' "This torn part looks like someone intentionally tore away the person who was there,"

Tazuna and Tsunami froze in their tracks, glancing at the youngest boy of the family, hiding his face under the shadow of his hat.

"It's..." Tsunami's bottom lip trembled, however it went unnoticed by everyone except Sasuke and Sakura who could clearly see her expressions from their angle, "My husband..."

Tazuna lowered his gaze to the table, tracing his reflection on the shiny surface of the mahogany coffee table, "He was the man known as the hero of this town,"

On Sasuke's right side, Inari tugged his hat lower before quickly getting up and leaving, uncomfortable with the topic at hand, "Inari! Where are you going?" Tsunami called desperately.

The boy paid no heed to his mother, ignoring her before firmly slamming the door behind him. Naruto darted up, startled by the noise. Tsunami bit her lop before her back slumped ever so slightly. She turned to Tazuna, an angry, sharp gaze grazing her eyes, "Otou-San! I told you to not talk about him in front of Inari!"

Then she too left, most likely to go after Inari.

The remaining residents of the room fell into a tense silence with the exception of Sakura quietly gulping down. Her tea, all cold now from her stirring.

"What's wrong with Inari?" Naruto grumbled. His ego had taken a blow after he'd been frightened by the slamming door. Sasuke would bother him later about it but the atmosphere was much too tense for anyone's liking.

For the first time in a while, Kakashi spoke up, "It seems there's a reason behind this," The albino observed as Tazuna's brow creased ever so slightly.

Tazuna lowered his head, "Inari had a father that wasn't related to him. They were very close, like father and son," Somehow, Sasuke could sense that the atmospheric sadness that lingered felt so different yet so similar to another feeling he'd never experienced. It felt strange, like déjà vu.

Naruto gasped, gazing intently at the torn picture.

"Inari used to laugh a lot back then," Tazuna informed, great anguish clearly evident, "But..." The bridge builder clenched his fists, voice shaking.

The Kakashi and Naruto shifted, Sakura on the other hand gazed sadly at the old man, empathy and familiarity flickering in her usually shining emerald irises. Sasuke wondered what could've happened, Inari didn't seem to smile much. The boy simply had no hope that his village could ever be freed from Gato's grasp.

There were droplets of water, shining as they fell towards the table. The bridge builder wiped his eyes behind his glasses, mouth set to thin line, "Inari changed. After the incident that happened to his father,"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

A blonde boy lay motionless under a thick canopy of leaves provided by the trees around him. His chest rose and fell steadily, his face dirtied from the events of his previous night's training. Nearby, a tree was marked with scratches, each individual scratch only inches above another. A kunai was dug into the bark above all the scratches, another kunai lay in his open palm.

A young woman stood over him, watching him. Her gripped her basket tightly, barely filled with medical herbs and plants.

Her free hand slowly flew towards his neck, as if she was going to strangle him, laying motionless and unable to protect himself.

Her hand shifted to the side, his shoulder. She shook him awake.

"You'll catch a cold if you keep sleeping here,"

The boy groaned groggily, staring up at the black haired woman that'd woken him up before hoisting himself up and rubbing his eyes.

"Who're you?" He asked, squinting his eyes.

The woman smiled warmly, he gulped trying to hide the pink tint that appeared on his cheeks, "Uh... Did you wake me up, sis? I mean, what're you doing here?" He scratched his temple, returning the gesture.

"I'm gathering medical herbs," She answered.

"Herbs?"

"Yes," She smiled, "For healing injuries, sickness and the like,"

"Oh," He looked down, "Do you need help? Dattebayo?"

She smiled again, "That would be pleasant, yes,"

Naruto couldn't stop the small grin from spreading across his face, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo!"

Her eyes creased ever so slightly, "It's very nice to meet you, Naruto-kun,"

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

"Where's Naruto?"

Sakura shrugged, pulling two ends of the rope she was holding tightly around her ankle, "He either went to see Inari or he's training,"

Sasuke scoffed, "Dobe thinks he's the hero doesn't he?"

The he rosette's left eye twitched, "Don't say that Sasuke, I'm sure Naruto is already the hero,"

Sasuke sighed, watching as she shakily took a step across the lake, biting her lip and creasing her brow in concentration as she flared her chakra to the soles of her feet, "Why do you trust him so much?"

"Because I-" With a small shriek, Sakura plunged into the lake, pelting water on the dissatisfied Uchiha.

"No... The bigger question is why you haven't given up yet, you've been practicing for the past three hours and you haven't taken any more than two step across the lake," He grumbled as he wrung the liquid from his navy-blue short sleeved shirt.

The rosette surfaced from the water before sprouting water from her mouth in an amusing manner, Sasuke couldn't help but snicker a little.

"Ah Mou! It's exactly in the same place as last time!" She complained before untying the rope around her ankle and looping it on one of the wooden stake lined across the lake before swimming back to shore.

"Don't be such a pessimist Sasuke," Sakura scolded, trudging back to the edge of the lake where Sasuke was seated under a tree, "I trust Naruto because I've seen first hand that he'll never give up even when you-"

"Even when I what?" He demanded.

Sakura bit her lip, "It's nothing really," She grinned brightly, maybe a little too brightly.

He sighed, "I get it, some secrets you need to keep to yourself but you can't keep hiding things forever. It's not healthy,"

Sakura gazed away, "I can't help it right now, maybe someday you and Naruto can know,"

"Alright," The Uchiha stretched before holding out a hand to her, "Here, you still have to practice so then you can teach me how to water walk,"

She stared at him, stunned.

Sasuke chuckled, "I can't let the dobe get ahead of me in training,"

The rosette shook her head, "It's not that, I just didn't think you would care," She took his hand gingerly, as if he would suddenly pull back and let her fall on her face. He raised a brow but said nothing.

She jumped up enthusiastically, "Yosh! I'm going to master water walking before sunset!"

Sasuke just stared at her, "You want to hold by hand for a little head-start?"

She gazed at him incredulously with a slight pink tinge on her cheeks before fi getting with her fingers much like Hinata would, "Sure, I-I mean... if it isn't a problem," She answered quietly.

She took his hand and lead him over to the edge of the lake. Taking a deep breath, she took a hesitant step, then another and another. Sasuke smiled in satisfaction as she's finally improved at least by a step.

However, this happiness was short lived as Sakura once again plunged to the depths of the lake, pulling the brooding Uchiha along with her.

* * *

**Woo, I wanted to add a little bit of SasuSaku fluffiness at the end of the chapter. The Land of the Waves Arc will end next chapter after. This chapter is very short this time, I didn't have much time to write something really special. Sorry.**

**By the way, I'm going back to Hong Kong for another week or so, updates won't be very plentiful. My stomach infection has calmed down a bit, I had pretty bad gastros for at least twelve hours straight.**

**Ja Ne!**

**-LucidClockwork**


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